9'9" x 12'8" Persian Kashan Rug | Red Floral Medallion | Semi-Antique Workshop Weave

This is a room-size Kashan in the classic central Persian formula, 9'9" x 12'8" of hand-knotted wool on a cotton foundation with a 3/8" pile that still stands evenly from fringe to fringe. The drawing is workshop work rather than village work: the medallion is centered and symmetrical, the vine scroll repeats cleanly across the whole field, and the four corner spandrels mirror each other almost exactly. Among persian Kashan rugs this is the size most buyers are hunting for, and it sits squarely in our 10x13 Persian rugs group. Every rug we ship travels with a certificate of authenticity confirming it is hand-knotted in Persia, with its origin, materials and measurements recorded.

Design and Motifs

A lobed central medallion anchors the field, built in layers: an ivory inner cartouche holding a teal and red rosette, wrapped in a dark navy ground packed with small palmettes and blossoms, then finished with a stepped outline and a pendant at each end. Around it the field runs as a continuous all-over vine, curved stems carrying palmettes, serrated leaves, 8 petal rosettes and tiny single blossoms, so the eye never hits a dead space. The 4 corner spandrels repeat the medallion's navy ground and ivory tracery, which frames the open red and keeps the composition formal. The border system is a triple arrangement: a wide navy and brown main band of connected palmettes and cypress-like floral sprays, flanked inside and out by teal blue guard stripes of reciprocal vine, with narrow ivory and gold hairlines separating each stage. The curvilinear drawing and the precision of the repeats are what separate a city Kashan from the angular geometric village weaves of Persia.

Color: Deep Red, Ivory and Teal Blue

The field is a saturated tomato red that shifts between a warmer brick tone and a cooler crimson depending on which way the pile is brushed, exactly the directional sheen good Kashan wool gives. Against it, ivory does the heavy lifting: it outlines the medallion core, lights up the corner spandrels and picks out individual blossoms across the field so the pattern stays legible from standing height. The medallion ground and the main border read as a very dark navy that goes nearly aubergine-brown in low light, which is what gives the rug its weight. Teal blue is the surprise here, used generously in the guard stripes and inside the medallion, cooler and clearer than the navy and the single element that keeps the red from feeling heavy. Olive and sage green fill the leaves, with small touches of soft rose, peach and gold in the flower heads. The red selvedge and the ivory fringe close it off cleanly.

Kashan: Weaving Town and Weave Quality

Kashan sits in central Persia, north of Isfahan, and its looms carry a workshop tradition that reaches back to the Safavid court ateliers. The town's reputation rests on two things: soft, lustrous local wool that takes dye deeply and holds a sheen, and a disciplined house style, a red field, a navy lobed medallion and ivory spandrels, repeated for generations because it works. That formula is familiar even to people who have never shopped for a rug: when you watch Shark Tank there is a Persian Kashan on the floor. On this piece the back shows a tight, regular knot structure on a cotton foundation, with straight sides and square corners, so a rug nearly 13 feet long lies flat without pulling. The pile is still a full 3/8" with no low areas, which for a mature workshop weave means decades of use remain in it.