9'9" x 13'4" Persian Kashan Rug | Red Field, Indigo Medallion | Semi-Antique Wool Pile

This 9'9" x 13'4" room-size piece is a textbook example of the classic formula that made Persian Kashan rugs the benchmark for formal floor covering: a deep red field, a lobed indigo medallion with ivory heart, and ivory corner spandrels that frame the whole composition. It is hand-knotted on a cotton foundation with a 3/8" wool pile that still stands full and even edge to edge, with straight sides and tidy original fringe at both ends. In a 10x13 Persian rug this drawing has room to breathe, so the vine scrolls read clearly rather than crowding each other. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

The center holds a stepped lobed medallion in dark indigo with an ivory inner cartouche, and at its core sits an 8 petal rosette ringed in turquoise and rose. Slender pendants run off the medallion at both ends and dissolve into the field. Around it the red ground carries a continuous allover lattice of palmettes, serrated lanceolate leaves, small cypress-like sprays and open blossoms, all joined by thin curving vine. The ivory spandrels at the 4 corners repeat the same vocabulary at a smaller scale against a pale ground, a device that keeps the eye moving outward. The main border is a dark indigo turtle-palmette and rosette meander, flanked on each side by light blue guard stripes carrying small paired blossoms, and the outermost minor stripe adds a quiet ivory and blue ribbon that finishes the edge cleanly.

A Red Field Against Dark Indigo

The palette is built on two strong colors and a long list of quiet ones. The field is a saturated madder red that reads slightly cool, almost cherry, and it sits against a near-black dark indigo in the medallion and the main border so the contrast stays sharp from across a room. Inside that frame the weaver worked in soft ivory for the spandrels and medallion center, a clear light blue for the guard stripes and many of the leaves, turquoise for the small rosette hearts, rose and old pink for the blossoms, muted olive green for the leaf tips, and touches of camel and apricot in the palmettes. The wool takes light well, so the red shifts tone as you walk around it. If you are collecting in this family, see more red and burgundy Persian rugs.

Kashan Weaving and Quality

Kashan sits in central Persia, north of Isfahan, and its workshops trace their drawing straight back to the Safavid court tradition. The town's reputation rests on soft lustrous local wool and on exactly the formula seen here: red field, navy lobed medallion, ivory spandrels. It is the most recognizable Persian design in the world. When you watch Shark Tank there is a Persian Kashan on the floor. On this piece the knotting is tight and regular enough to hold the curved vine without breaking the line, the selvages are intact, and the 3/8" pile has even height throughout with no low spots or repairs. A weave of this grade in a true 9'9" x 13'4" is a long-term floor rug, not a decorative throw, and it will take decades of real use.