Q&A: Please Identify this Oriental Carpet!

Question:

-anonymous

Response:

Hi,

Thanks for bringing this great looking carpet to the Rug Rag Q&A

This is a semi-antique Sarouk Carpet made in Iran/Persia with wool pile and cotton foundation.  The carpet is probably from the 1940's to 1950's. To say this with 100% certainty would need additional photographs as seen here, however, given what we see in design, arrangements of knots, other structure hints, and the overall design, this is very confident attribution.

Assigning value to any rug requires careful inspection.  A 15'x20' is a very large piece, measuring 300 square feet.  We understand the difficulty of taking photographs of such a large carpet, but so much of the carpet is unseen in these images.   

We're unsure if you are planning on selling or just inquiring on the value for interest sake, but here's a little more that we can tell you.

The good:

The carpet it does not show evidence to having been "painted" (a common practice for some earlier Sarouks), it does not appear to have been stripped of paint either. This is to your advantage. 

The carpet also features a slightly less commonly found medallion as well and nice timeless colors.

Not so great:

The size metioned of 15'x20' is not particularly workable for most.

Appears to be missing some fringe, slight wear to the edges.

Here is our advice:

If all ends are fully intact, corners are square and as they should be, and if the rug has no major holes, no threadbare areas and no dry rot, even wear, etc...  We recommend having a Certified Appraisal done for this rug.  If the rug is in good condition or better, you're going to be very happy with having gone through the process:  Even with some low edges, and missing fringe. If you would like to discuss more about condition, just let us know in the comment field at the bottom of this page.  

We don't want to get your hopes up by throwing out numbers with this piece because the condition for these rugs is everything.  In addition, the general market, especially given the unsual size, has been much different in recent years than in past.  However, it's fair to say if the rug is in very good shape, you most certainly have a carpet on your hands more valuable than the typical "commercial carpet" of today.  Also worth noting there were two or three importers who commissioned very fine grade Sarouks which were a tier above typical production. Ask whoever is inspecting if there are woven trademarks or inscriptions out of curiousity. This does not necessarily increase the value, but may help further attribute or reinforce asking price.

We hope this has helped. Feel free to comment or add additional questions to the comment field below.

Best,

-Rug Rag

We look forward to talking with anyone who may have questions on or about oriental rugs.  We are an Independent Reviewer, and will give you our opinion for any rug, new or old.  Should you have any questions you would like to submit for a blog entry response, please do so, and be sure to include photographs of your rug.  For more information, please take a look at the bottom of this page, or feel free to Contact Us at Info@RugRag.com

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For all those interested in submitting a question to the Rug Rag Editors:  We'd be more than happy to help, please send some photographs of the reverse side of the rug very close up with a quarter placed on the knots, plus a picture of the fringe, the whole face of the rug and detail shot of the pile.  If the rug is worn, please include photographs of worn areas.  For rugs of any age, please be sure to check for dry areas, moth damage, odor, and whether or not the rug is straight/has right angles where called for.  If you have any questions about our assessment request feel free to send us an email.  Otherwise, we are looking for something similar to these images posted here. 

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