9'9" x 12'8" Persian Kashan Rug | Raspberry Red Field, Navy Black Borders | Semi-Antique Floral Medallion

A full room-size Kashan at 9'9" x 12'8", hand-knotted in central Persia with a 3/8" wool pile on a cotton foundation, and still carrying its original workshop tag on the back (stock number 7016, Kashan, hand-knotted woolen rug). The pile has settled into that slightly glossy, close-cropped feel that only comes with age and careful use, with the drawing still crisp from the medallion out to the outer guard stripe. This is the classic formula that made Persian Kashan rugs the default choice for formal rooms: deep red field, dark lobed medallion, ivory corners, nothing improvised. It lays dead flat, the fringe is clean and even on both ends, and it covers a 10 by 13 footprint comfortably, which puts it squarely among our most usable 10x13 Persian rugs. Every rug we ship, this one included, goes out with a certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

The center holds a small ivory diamond cartouche with a lavender blue rosette core, set inside a black lobed medallion outlined in ivory, with pendant tips reaching north and south into the field. Around it the field is a dense all-over floral lattice: curling vine, split-leaf arabesques, 8 petal rosettes, tulip and carnation heads, and small shrubs drawn in olive green, ivory and blue, every element balanced against its mirror on the opposite side. The 4 corners carry ivory and black spandrels filled with the same vinework, which is the drawing that frames the medallion and gives the composition its classic Kashan proportion. The border scheme runs wide: a black main band with alternating palmettes and rosettes on a trailing vine, flanked by narrow lavender blue guard stripes of small meandering blossoms, with thin ivory and rust stripes separating each one. Count 7 bands from field to selvage, all drawn by hand and all turning the corner cleanly, which is the first thing to check on a workshop rug this size.

Color: Raspberry Red Field Against Black Borders

The field is a cool raspberry red, a blue-leaning madder tone rather than a tomato or brick red, and it reads deeper under lamplight than it does in daylight. Against it the black main border is almost ink dark, with just enough brown in it to keep the rug from looking printed, and the contrast between those two values is what makes the ivory elements jump: the medallion cartouche, the corner spandrels, the outlining of every vine. Through the field you get rose pink and soft old-rose in the larger blossoms, lavender blue and a steadier navy in the leaves and rosette centers, olive and sage green in the stems, with small flickers of saffron gold and rust in the flower throats. The lavender blue guard borders are the quiet surprise here, cooling the whole edge of the rug and tying the blues of the field together. It is a rich, saturated palette that sits well with mahogany and walnut furniture, warm whites, and cream or camel upholstery.

Kashan: Central Persia's Workshop Standard

Kashan sits in central Persia, north of Isfahan, and its weaving goes back to the Safavid court workshops. The town built its reputation on two things: soft, lustrous local wool that takes dye beautifully and holds a sheen for decades, and a disciplined studio formula of red field, dark lobed medallion and ivory spandrels that generations of weavers refined rather than abandoned. This piece is a town workshop weave rather than village work, which you can see in the symmetry of the field, the fine articulation of the small rosettes, and the way the 3/8" pile is clipped low so the drawing stays legible. Kashan is also the Persian rug most Americans have already seen without knowing it: when you watch Shark Tank there is a Persian Kashan on the floor. At 9'9" x 12'8" this one is heavy, tightly woven and built for traffic, the kind of rug that gets handed down rather than replaced.