9'9" x 13' Persian Kashan Rug | Red Field All-Over Floral | Signed Workshop Weave

At 9'9" x 13' this is a true room-size weave, and it carries the two things that separate a workshop Kashan from a village copy: a signed cartouche woven into the ivory inner border, and drawing fine enough to keep every palmette legible across 156 inches of length. The field is a deep raspberry red, the medallion and main border read nearly black, and the 3/8 inch wool pile is full and even end to end with no wear, no repair and intact sides and ends. The reverse, shown against a ruler, is tight and regular on a cotton foundation. Every rug we ship leaves Freeport with a certificate of authenticity, and this one sits squarely in the most useful of all formal sizes, so it is worth comparing against our other 10x13 Persian rugs before you decide. For background on the weave itself, our Persian Kashan rugs guide goes deeper.

Design and Motifs

This is the classic Kashan formula drawn in the all-over manner rather than the open-field manner. A black elongated lobed medallion sits dead center, filled with a layered rosette and flanked by curling teal arabesques, and 4 black corner spandrels answer it at the edges of the field. Between them the ground is covered completely: paired palmettes, serrated acanthus leaves, small 8 petal rosettes, hooked boteh forms and a continuous vine that links one motif to the next without ever leaving an awkward gap. The pattern is fully symmetrical along both axes, which takes real cartoon discipline at this scale. Framing is a 5 band system, from the narrow red edge stripe inward through an ivory vine meander, a broad main border of alternating palmettes and leaf cartouches, a second ivory guard carrying the woven signature, and a fine reciprocal stripe that holds the field. The signature cartouche, visible in the close-up of the end border, is woven in red on ivory and marks this as a named workshop piece rather than anonymous commercial output.

The Raspberry Red and Black Color Scheme

The field is a rich raspberry red with a faint blue undertone, closer to a ripe cherry than to a brick or rust red, and the lanolin still in the hand-spun wool gives it a visible sheen that shifts as you walk past. Against that, the medallion, the spandrels and the wide main border all read as a deep black with a dark indigo core, and the contrast is what makes the pattern legible from across a large room. The drawing itself is carried in a surprisingly wide palette: chalky ivory and cream do most of the outlining, teal and sky blue fill the arabesques and leaves, sage and olive green appear in the smaller leaf tips, and dusty rose, salmon and soft gold pick out individual flower heads. Small touches of walnut brown sit inside the palmettes. The guard borders lift to a warm ivory, almost camel in the end-border close-up, which softens the transition from the dark border out to the red selvage and the clean ivory fringe.

Kashan: Central Persia's Court Weaving Tradition

Kashan lies in central Persia, north of Isfahan, and its looms trace back to the Safavid court workshops that produced some of the most important carpets ever woven. The town's reputation rests on two things: soft, lustrous local wool that takes dye deeply and holds a sheen for generations, and a drawing tradition built on curved line, lobed medallions and ivory spandrels. It is also the single most familiar Persian design in America, the one your eye already knows: when you watch Shark Tank there is a Persian Kashan on the floor. This example is workshop work, not village work. The cotton warp is set fine and even, the knotting is regular enough to hold the vine scroll crisp through every repeat, and the back is uniform from the 117 inch width to the 13 foot length with no pulling or waviness, which is how a rug this size stays flat for decades. The signed cartouche, the even 3/8 inch pile and the excellent condition together make it a piece you buy once.