9'9" x 14'8" Persian Kashan Rug | Red Field Floral Medallion | Semi-Antique Oversize Wool

At 9'9" x 14'8" this is a true room-filling piece, a semi-antique Persian Kashan rug hand-knotted in wool on a cotton foundation with a close 3/8" pile that still stands full and even across the whole field. The drawing is the formal central Persian formula: a single lobed medallion anchored in the middle of a deep red field, ivory spandrels cut into all 4 corners, and a wide navy main border carried between ivory and soft blue guard stripes. The back tag photographed with the ruler reads 448 x 298 cm, which is the metric record of the same measurement. Scale like this belongs with the oversize Persian rugs we import directly, and every piece leaves us with a certificate of authenticity confirming the origin, materials and hand-knotted construction.

Design and Motifs

The center holds a navy lobed medallion with an ivory inner cartouche and a small 8 petal rosette set exactly on the midpoint, with pendants reaching north and south along the long axis. Around it the red field is not left open: it is filled edge to edge with scrolling vine work, palmettes, serrated leaves and small cup-shaped blossoms, all drawn in the curved Kashan line rather than the angular village style. The 4 ivory spandrels repeat the same vine in miniature, which is what gives the field its clear diamond silhouette when you stand back from it. Borders run in 3 bands: a broad navy main border of linked palmettes and rosettes, a pale blue vine stripe on each side of it, and narrow ivory meander stripes closing the outer and inner edges. The close detail photograph shows how much of the drawing happens at small scale, with individual flower heads outlined in ivory so they read against the dark ground.

The Colors Up Close

The field is a deep rose red that leans toward crimson under daylight and settles into a warmer brick tone under lamps, with the gentle tonal variation through the ground that comes from wool dyed in separate lots. Against it the borders and medallion are a near-black navy, dark enough to frame the field hard at the edges. Ivory does the lifting work: the spandrels, the medallion center, the guard stripes and thousands of small outlined petals, all in a creamy un-bleached tone rather than stark white. Olive and sage green appear in the leaves and in several of the border palmettes, and there are quieter notes of soft blue-grey, dusty rose, pale apricot and a little saffron scattered through the flower heads. The overall balance is red and navy with ivory relief, which is why this one sits comfortably in a room that already has mahogany furniture, warm neutrals or dark wood floors.

Kashan Weaving and Quality

Kashan sits in central Persia north of Isfahan, and its looms trace back to the Safavid court workshops, which is why the town never drifted into geometric work and instead stayed with medallion-and-spandrel compositions drawn in a flowing curved line. The local wool is soft and lustrous, and here it has been clipped low so the pattern stays legible at close range, with the pile dense enough underfoot to take traffic in a main living space. If you watch Shark Tank, there is a Persian Kashan on the floor, which tells you how firmly this design has settled into the American idea of what a formal rug looks like. Weaving a single balanced medallion piece at nearly 15 feet long takes a wide loom and a patient hand, since any drift in the drawing shows immediately over that distance, and on this rug the medallion, pendants and corners all land square.