Rugsville Kashan Rust Black Wool Carpet 9' x 12'

Kashan as a design tradition came out of central Persia where the wool was finer, the knot was tighter, and the colour palette favoured deep madder red against indigo blue and ivory. The classical Kashan medallion sits inside a field of dense floral tracery, with the four spandrel quarters at the corners completing a pattern that reads as a single composition. Rust and black is the more restrained reading of that vocabulary, where the principal red is pulled toward terracotta and the deep accent leans charcoal rather than ink-blue.

Three to four weavers shared the vertical loom for around six months. The pile is hand-spun New Zealand wool on cotton warp, tied in Persian asymmetric knots row by row. The dye plants were madder root for the rust, indigo and oak gall layered for the deep black, walnut hull for the warm tan, and pomegranate for the cream. Each colour matured in copper vessels for two to three weeks before the wool was lowered. After clipping the rug spent four days in sun and a long mineral wash that mellowed the colour into antique register.

The composition

A rust ground holding a stepped black medallion at the centre and four spandrel quarters at the corners. The field between is worked in dense floral tracery, vine and palmette and rosette, drawn in cream and walnut and faint indigo. The border is a triple band, the principal one in black with a stylised vine repeat. The rust will lighten by a half shade over the first decade and the black will lift toward charcoal, the slow exchange that vegetable-dyed Kashans were always built to perform.

What you are buying

Antique Kashan carpets at this scale and palette carry estimates of thirty to sixty-five thousand US dollars at international auction when condition matches. This rug shares the loom architecture, the Persian knot, the long-staple wool, and the plant-dye discipline of those antiques. At one and a half lac it sits at a fraction of the auction comparable and appreciates with use rather than depreciating.

The piece in a room

9' x 12' (274 x 366 cm) anchors a primary drawing room. The rust ground holds against chalk plaster and warms walnut casework. The medallion centres a room without dictating the seating layout. Pairs with brass detail, oxblood leather, raw linen, and a single large work above the sofa.

Conservation

Rotate the rug a half turn each spring and autumn. Vacuum weekly, suction only, beater bar off. Blot spills at once with clean cotton, never rub. Hand-wash by a trained wool conservator every six years. With this care the piece runs nine decades in regular use.

Reference

• Medium: hand-knotted New Zealand wool on cotton foundation
• Dimensions: 274 x 366 cm (9' x 12')
• Construction: Persian asymmetric knot
• Hands: 3-4 weavers, ~6 months
• Pile: hand-spun wool
• Dye: vegetable (madder, indigo, oak gall, walnut, pomegranate)
• Origin: India

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