9'9" x 13'7" Persian Kashan Rug | Red Field Floral Medallion | Signed Woven Cartouche

A signed piece in a true room size, this 9'9" x 13'7" Kashan was woven on a cotton foundation with a 3/8" wool pile, and the weaver put his name in a small cartouche in the border, which is something only a workshop does when it stands behind the piece. The drawing is disciplined all the way out to the selvedges: a lobed medallion dead center, matching pendants above and below, deep spandrels at the 4 corners, and a field that never once repeats itself carelessly. The wool has the soft, slightly glossy handle that buyers look for in Persian Kashan rugs, and at this footprint it sits under a 10 seat dining table or fills a large living room wall to wall, which is why it belongs with the 10x14 Persian rugs rather than the standard 9x12 group. It ships with our certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

The center holds a small sky blue rosette inside an ivory cusped frame, ringed by a navy lobed medallion whose edge is drawn with fine ivory hooks and tendrils. From there the field opens into a dense curvilinear lattice of palmettes, 8 petal rosettes, half palmettes and long serrated leaves, all carried on thin vine scrolls that turn cleanly rather than snapping at angles. Above and below the medallion sit two navy pendants with the same internal flowers scaled down, and the 4 corner spandrels answer them in navy with ivory outlines and sky blue flower heads. The border system is a wide navy main band of alternating palmettes and rosettes on a meandering vine, flanked by a pale blue floral band on one side and a narrow rose and ivory guard on the other, with a fine reciprocal stripe finishing the edge. The cartouche photographed in close-up interrupts that main band with green, ivory and red panels and the weaver's script laid over them.

The Color: Deep Red, Navy and Sky Blue

The field is a saturated true red, closer to a cherry red than to brick or rust, and it reads slightly deeper toward the ends where the pile lies against the light. Against it the medallion, pendants, spandrels and main border are all a dark inky navy, almost black at a distance, which is what gives the piece its graphic snap from across a room. The relief comes from the blues: a clear sky blue in the medallion core, in the spandrel flowers and in the outer floral band, plus a cooler denim blue in individual leaves. Ivory does the outlining work throughout, sharpening every silhouette, and it also carries the guard border. Scattered through the field are rose pink and salmon flower heads, an olive to sage green in the leaves and stems, warm camel brown in some of the larger palmettes, and small touches of soft taupe. The overall impression is a classic red and navy formal palette, but with enough pink, blue and green in the small flowers that it never goes flat.

Kashan: the Town and the Weave

Kashan sits in central Persia, north of Isfahan, and its looms trace back to the Safavid court workshops, which is why the formula here is so familiar: a red field, a navy lobed medallion, ivory spandrels and a wide floral border. The local wool is soft and lustrous, and Kashan weavers use it at a knot density high enough to draw a curved vine without breaking it into steps, which is exactly what you see in the tendrils around this medallion. The back photograph shows tight, even rows on a cotton warp, with no crowding or slack, the sign of a workshop loom rather than a village one. Kashan is also the design most people already know without knowing the name: when you watch Shark Tank there is a Persian Kashan on the floor. A signed 9'9" x 13'7" example in excellent condition, with full pile and clean edges, is the version of that design worth owning.