9'8" x 13' Persian Kashan Rug | Signed Ivory Floral Medallion | 1980s Wool Pile

This is a signed, room-size example of the classic central Persian formula, worked in an unusually quiet palette. The field is ivory rather than the expected red, the medallion and border are a warm taupe, and the drawing is carried almost entirely in navy and soft sky blue. It measures 9'8" x 13", sits squarely in the 10x13 Persian rug range, and dates to the 1980s with a full, even 3/8" wool pile and no visible wear. A woven cartouche in the upper border names the weaver, which on Persian Kashan rugs almost always signals a workshop piece rather than a village commission. Every rug ships with a certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

A lobed taupe medallion sits dead center, stepped and hooked at the edges, with a small pale blue rosette at its heart and a single red dot at the very middle. Above and below it run slender pendants that taper into the field. The ground around the medallion is not left open: it is filled with a continuous allover vine of palmettes, curling serrated leaves and small eight petal blossoms, all drawn in the flowing curvilinear line that only a fine loom allows. The 4 corner spandrels repeat the taupe ground of the medallion, which frames the ivory field neatly. Three guard stripes on each side lead into a broad main border of linked palmettes and vine, and the outermost minor stripe carries a tight reciprocal motif that runs the full perimeter.

A Quiet Ivory, Taupe and Blue Palette

The field reads as a clean ivory with a faint cream warmth, not a stark white, and it is the reason this piece works in rooms where a traditional red ground would dominate. Against it, two distinct blues do most of the drawing: a deep navy for the outlines, stems and the darker blossoms, and a soft powder or sky blue for the inner medallion, the leaf fills and the lighter flower heads. The medallion, spandrels and main border share one continuous mushroom taupe, greige in some lights and pale mocha in others, which keeps the whole composition tonal. Scattered through the vinework are olive green leaves and small strikes of rust and terracotta, plus a few tiny brick red flower centers that keep the ivory from going flat. It is a cool, restrained scheme with just enough warmth in the taupe to sit well over wood floors.

Kashan Weaving and the Signed Cartouche

Kashan lies in central Persia, north of Isfahan, and its looms trace back to the Safavid court workshops of the 16th century. The town is known for soft, lustrous local wool and for a house formula of central medallion, corner spandrels and dense floral field that is so familiar it has become shorthand for a Persian rug: when you watch Shark Tank there is a Persian Kashan on the floor. The reverse of this piece, shown against an 8 inch ruler, is tight and even, with clear knot rows and crisp definition of every outline, which is what lets the curved vine read cleanly rather than stepping. The signature woven into the border is the maker's own mark, and on a rug of this size it tells you the loom was set up for a commissioned order rather than the open market.