9'9" x 13' Persian Kashan Rug | Soft Red Field, Ivory Medallion | 1980s, Perfect Condition

This is a textbook room-size Kashan from the 1980s, hand-knotted in central Persia with a fine natural wool pile on a cotton foundation. Everything about it is the classic formula: a soft muted red field packed with flowering vines, a small ivory and navy lobed medallion holding the center, deep navy corner spandrels and a navy main border framed by sky blue guard stripes. At 9'9" x 13" it has the proportions buyers look for in 10x13 Persian rugs, and the pile is still thick and even across the whole surface, with no wear, no open areas and clean original ivory fringe. If you want the background reading, our guide to Persian Kashan rugs covers the weaving town in detail. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity identifying origin, materials and construction.

Design and Motifs

The field is drawn as a continuous flowering vine system rather than a repeating grid, which is why it reads so calm from a distance and so busy up close. Thin green stems curl out from the center in every direction, carrying small 8 petal rosettes, half palmettes, serrated leaves and tiny blossoms in blue, yellow, ivory and rose. The medallion is small relative to the field, which is typical of the better Kashan drawing: a stepped navy cartouche with an ivory inner panel and a single blue and red rosette at the very center, outlined in a fine ivory line that keeps it crisp against the red. Four navy corner spandrels echo the medallion shape and carry their own vases, palmettes and curling vine, so the layout resolves cleanly at all 4 corners. The navy main border runs a stately palmette and rosette repeat anchored by orange and gold medallion heads, with an ivory inner guard of blue flowerheads and a light blue outer guard stripe of small paired blossoms. Both ends finish in the same border sequence, and the pattern joins correctly at the corners, which tells you the weavers were following a proper workshop cartoon.

Color: Soft Muted Red, Navy, Sky Blue, Green and Ivory

The ground is a soft muted red with a faint raspberry cast, lighter and friendlier than the hard brick reds you see on commercial production, and it holds a quiet sheen where the wool catches the light. Against it sits a deep inky navy used for the spandrels and the main border, strong enough to give the field a hard edge without turning the rug dark. The blues do most of the decorative work: a bright sky blue in the outer guard stripe and in the leaves and blossoms scattered through the field, a mid cobalt in the larger flowerheads, and small touches of teal in the stems. Ivory appears three ways, as the medallion core, as the inner guard band, and as thin outlining that separates every motif from its background. Green runs through the vine itself in a soft sage to olive range, and the accents finish with clear yellow, warm orange and a dusty rose in the palmettes. It is a genuinely multi color rug built on a red base, so it sits easily with cream, walnut, camel and darker blues, and it is a good reference piece if you are shopping red and burgundy Persian rugs at this size.

Kashan: The Weaving Town and the Quality of This Piece

Kashan sits in central Persia, north of Isfahan, and its weaving goes back to the Safavid court workshops. The town's reputation rests on two things: soft lustrous local wool and a settled design formula of red field, lobed medallion and ivory spandrels that has barely changed in a century because it works. This rug is a good example of the standard. The knotting is tight and regular, the back shows an even, fine grain across the whole rug, and the curved vine lines stay smooth rather than stepping, which only happens when the knot count is high enough to carry a curve. The wool has been clipped at a medium pile that still feels substantial underfoot and has kept its luster after 40 years without being walked on. 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 13' this one covers a full formal room, and at this age and in this condition it is the kind of piece people keep for decades and hand down.