What is an Authentic Oriental Rug?

An Oriental rug is a hand-knotted or hand-woven loomed textile which comes from the Near, Middle or Far East. The major Oriental rug producing countries include Turkey, Iran, the Caucasus, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal and China. Other countries such as Egypt and Romania have smaller productions.

We know that Oriental rug weaving has been done for over 2,000 years with the discovery of the Pazyryk carpet (ca. 500B.C.) from the Altai Mountains of Siberia. A careful study of this museum piece reveals that, fundamentally, not a lot has changed in Oriental rug construction over the last couple of millenia.

Most Oriental rugs are made of wool pile on cotton foundation although they can also be made of wool-on-wool, wool-on-silk or even silk-on-silk. Wool is clipped from sheep twice a year, washed, carded and then spun into yarn. It then has to be dyed to provide the weaver with an inventory of different colors. Dyestuffs are either natural (i.e., vegetal) or synthetic (e.g., chrome or aniline).

Designs must first be rendered on graph ("cartoon") and/or talim (encryption) so that the weaver knows what color yarn to knot on each pair of longitudinal warp strands on the loom. Designs can be simple/primitive/tribal or they can be formal/complex/sophisticated. "Turkic" rugs generally fall into the former category while "Persian" rugs generally fall into the latter. This is not to suggest one is necessarily superior to the other.

The weaver then begins the laborious task of tying the thousands, if not millions, of small knots employing the range of colored yarn according to the design. This process can take months or even years for finely knotted larger rugs we call carpets.

After weaving, the rugs/carpets should be washed, hand-clipped (to make the pile uniform.) and blocked. However, in cases of inferior Oriental rugs these final steps are not done or are not done thoroughly, and these pieces are relegated to a "seconds" pile.

How to Buy an Oriental Rug

The consumer is far better off buying an Oriental rug from an established reputable dealer that he or she trusts and that will allow a buyer to see the rug or carpet in the home before purchasing. Also this dealer should be able to service the rug/carpet years after the purchase.

Places to avoid buying Oriental rugs are the vehicles that apply pressure and/or give the consumer the illusion that it's too good a deal to pass up. Such "vehicles" are the travelling auctions, "Liquidation Sales", "Going Out of Business Sales", and now "Estate Sales," where merchandise is planted in a house. Invariably, these are inferior goods that must be moved quickly and where the sale is made to "stick" employing slick tricks and legalese. Also beware of dealers that offer every rug in stock at deep discounts such as 50%, 60% and more. This can only mean one thing: that every rug is overpriced to begin with.

John Kebabian is the fourth generation owner of Kebabian's Oriental Rugs, 73 Elm St., in downtown New Haven. It is America's oldest Oriental rug establishment, in continuous operation since 1882. Tel: (203) 865-0567

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