Kashan Persian Rugs — Hand-Knotted Mohtasham, Dabir & Manchester

Kashan — the classical Persian city carpet

Kashan (also written Keshan or Kachan) lies on the old caravan route between Tehran, Isfahan and Yazd. It is the source of what most people picture when they think of a Persian carpet: a central medallion with pendants, corner spandrels, a densely drawn floral field and a deep madder-red ground.

The city’s reputation rests on two separate periods. Under the Safavids in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Kashan produced silk carpets of a quality that has never really been matched since; surviving examples are in museums rather than in trade. Production then faded for well over a century. The Kashan rugs you can actually buy come from the second flowering that began in the middle of the nineteenth century, when the city’s workshops were re-established and quickly became the benchmark for finely knotted Persian city weaving. For technical and historical background, the Jozan Carpet Encyclopedia is the standard reference on Persian provenance.

The workshop names, and what they actually tell you

Kashan is one of the few Persian origins where the workshop matters as much as the town, so the names are worth knowing before you buy.

• Mohtasham — the best-known workshop of the late nineteenth century. Very fine knotting, a restrained palette of madder red, indigo and ivory, and unusually soft wool. The name is also the most freely applied one in the trade, so it needs looking at rather than believing.
• Dabir — late nineteenth and early twentieth century, known for precise, disciplined medallion drawing.
• Manchester Kashan — roughly 1880 to 1930, when the leading workshops bought worsted wool spun in Manchester. The English mills produced a long-staple, very evenly spun yarn, and it shows: these pieces have a noticeably higher sheen and a softer handle than contemporary Kashans woven with local wool.
• Kashan silk — smaller formats in silk on a silk foundation, knotted at up to about a million knots per square metre. Usually hung rather than laid.

Reading the design

• Central medallion with pendants top and bottom and matching corner spandrels — the standard Kashan composition
• Shah Abbasi palmettes — the large stylised flower named after the Safavid ruler, drawn on curving vines
• Tree of life and vase compositions — mostly on prayer-format pieces
• Palette — madder red, ivory, dark indigo, sage green, occasionally camel

Living with a Kashan — an honest note

A Kashan is a formal rug and it does not pretend otherwise. The composition is symmetrical and centred, which means it wants to be seen whole: put a large sofa across one corner or a coffee table dead centre and the medallion disappears. In a room where the furniture cannot be arranged around it, an allover pattern without a medallion is usually the happier choice.

The red is strong. On a photograph it reads warmer than it does on a grey or very cool floor, and it will dominate a small room. If you like the drawing but not the ground colour, look at ivory-ground Kashans or at the softer palettes in Sarouk and vintage pieces.

On antique examples, expect signs of a long life: pile worn lower in the walking lines, ends reduced or reinforced, and old repairs. These are normal on a rug of a hundred years or more and are described individually for each piece — but they are the reason an antique Kashan is not the rug for a household that wants everything uniform.

At a glance

• Origin: Kashan, central Iran
• Knot density: around 250,000 to 360,000 knots per square metre in room sizes; up to about 1,000,000 in fine silk pieces
• Pile: Kurk wool, imported Manchester worsted in the relevant antique pieces, or silk
• Foundation: cotton warp and weft; silk warp in silk pieces
• Knot: asymmetric Persian knot
• Common formats: 135 × 205 cm through to palace sizes above 500 × 330 cm
• Underfloor heating: suitable
• Documentation: written assessment of origin, material and knot count with every rug

Care

Vacuum in the direction of the pile at moderate suction, keeping the rotating brush bar away from the fringes. Turn the rug end for end once a year; a finely knotted wool pile shows uneven wear and uneven fading sooner than a coarse one. Blot spills, never rub. Antique pieces should not be soaked at home — old dyes and weakened foundations need a controlled hand wash. Customers in Germany can use our hand washing and restoration service, with collection and return in the Würzburg region; elsewhere we are glad to help you find a specialist nearby.

Related collections

Persian rugs overview · Isfahan · Tabriz · Qum silk · Sarouk · Palatial carpets