9'8" x 13' Persian Kashan Rug | Classic Red Medallion Field | Excellent Condition

This is a full room-size Persian Kashan rug in the formula the town is known for: a tomato red field crowded with flowering vine, a lobed ivory and teal medallion holding the exact center, and dark corner spandrels that square off the composition. It is hand-knotted in wool on a cotton foundation, with a 3/8 inch pile that still stands upright and even from one end to the other, so the drawing stays crisp when you walk across it. At 9'8" x 13" the proportions are honest and the medallion reads centered from every side of the room, which is not always true of large village work. Shoppers comparing 10x13 Persian rugs will notice how steady the border rhythm stays along all 4 sides, a sign of a disciplined loom rather than a hurried one. Every rug leaves Freeport with a certificate of authenticity confirming it is hand-knotted and woven in Persia.

Design and Motifs

The center holds a lobed medallion built in 3 layers: an ivory cartouche-shaped core carrying a teal rosette and small lotus heads, a ring of ivory ground scattered with buds, and a dark outer lobe outlined in a fine pale line. Pendant finials run off the top and bottom of the medallion into the field, and the field itself is a dense all-over scheme of palmettes, serrated leaves, open rosettes and curling vine, drawn in curved line rather than the angular village manner. Look at the 4 corners and you will see generous spandrels in the same dark tone, filled with ivory and teal vine work that mirrors the medallion so the eye reads the piece as one closed garden. The main border is a wide palmette and vine band, flanked inside and out by narrow pale blue guard stripes carrying a repeating flower head and heart motif, then finished with a slim red outer edge. There is a quiet detail worth noticing in the photographs: small vases and birdlike blossoms tucked into the border repeat, the kind of thing a weaver puts in when the cartoon is being followed by someone who enjoys it.

The Colors in Detail

The field is a warm tomato red, a shade or two brighter than brick and with a visible wool sheen that shifts lighter or deeper depending on which direction you stand, which is the pile reflecting light rather than any variation in dye. Against it, the medallion outline, the spandrels and the main border all sit in a midnight navy so deep it reads as black at a distance and only opens up to blue in direct light, as it does in the corner close-up. The relief comes from the secondary palette: a clear teal and a softer sky blue in the guard stripes and medallion core, chalky ivory in the outlines and spandrel vine, and then small quantities of rose, apricot, olive green, camel and gold scattered through the flower heads. Those warm accents are what keep a red and navy rug from feeling heavy, and they give it enough range to sit with wood tones, leather, or cooler grey upholstery. If you are building a room around deep tones, this piece belongs squarely in the red and burgundy Persian rugs family, with the navy doing the grounding work.

Kashan: The Town and the Weave

Kashan sits in central Persia, north of Isfahan, and its reputation goes back to the Safavid court workshops, where the curved-line floral medallion was perfected. The local wool is soft and unusually lustrous, which is exactly why a Kashan field glows the way this one does, and the classic town formula of red field, navy lobed medallion and ivory spandrels has barely changed in 400 years because it works. Technically this is workshop weaving rather than village weaving: a cotton foundation held at even tension, a tight horizontal line, and a pile clipped low at 3/8 inch so none of the fine drawing is lost in the wool. That low, dense pile is also why Kashans are the rug people put in the rooms they actually use, since there is very little loose fiber to crush underfoot. One last bit of trivia that tells you how deep this design sits in the culture: when you watch Shark Tank there is a Persian Kashan on the floor.