Many people are uninformed about oriental rugs. Most of the information they gather is at the point when they are about to purchase one. We would like you to be aware of the likely misconceptions about oriental rugs.

Rugs of the same name are of equal quality

Truth: There are hundreds of Oriental rug workshops in India as in China, Turkey, Nepal, Pakistan and Iran. Generally names are given to a rug because of their design or region of origin. There are hundreds of workshops that weave Tabriz designs or Agra designs. One would be naïve to think that they would all use the same quality of weave, dies, and wool and silk. Even the machine made and hand tufted carpets may have these names and they are usually less expensive than a hand knotted carpet.

The higher and thicker the pile the better

Truth: A rug’s quality is generally a function of its weaving tightness, dye and wool quality and whether there is silk. When the rug is finished the face of the rug looks fuzzy and very thick. The workshop decides how low they are going to sheer this rug. The tighter the knotting the lower it would be sheered so that the wool does not move back and forth and make the rug look fuzzy. Using the same wool the tightly woven rug will wear better than a coarsely woven rug with a higher pile.

Hand made rugs appreciate in value

Truth: New oriental rugs can take decades to appreciate. According to United States Customs definition a rug must be a hundred years old in order to be antique. The rugs are also referred to as semi-antique, however not everyone agrees on its definition. Some dealers may call a rug semi-antique even though it may be thirty or forty years old. Buy your rug because you like it, and let your children or grandchildren benefit from its profits.

There is a correlation between country of origin and quality

Truth: Whether it may be Turkey, Iran, Nepal, India, China or Pakistan, there are hundreds of workshop that weave rugs at various qualities. We travel to these countries many times a year and in each country we come across ly fine qualities and sometimes very junky ones.

Foreign travel gives you sometimes the best chance to buy from the source

Truth: Foreign travels may not give you the best rug values. One customer goes to Turkey and they are sold a Chinese silk carpet as made in Turkey (the laws are not as enforceable). Another customer buys rugs on a trip to Bahrain thinking that there will be deals and end up paying more than they would have if they bought it in America (Bahrain does not weave carpets). One of our suppliers in India told us that they manufacture rugs exclusively for the tourists that are ly light so that company can save on FedEx charges shipping to the United States (an 8x10 rug weighs around 120 lbs). Often at times people bring us their “finds” for assessment. It is often revealed that the better quality and better buy was closer to them than a trip halfway around the globe.