Too Good to Be True Persian Rug? Is it Real?

Question: 

I am wondering if you can help me out.  I've recently purchased semi-antique Iranian rugs on ebay that seem too good to be true.

The wool appears of reasonable quality and even has a slight patina.  The rug shows all the markings of a hand-woven rug to my eye, but both the price and uniformity of the weaving seem odd.  The price seems too cheap - although many of these rugs have mild defects: uneven wear, a patch (not a repair), chemical fading, etc.

I've attached a photo.  Overall the most striking thing is the uniformity of the weave.  I have many older rugs, tribal and a few "master signed" and they sometimes are "wavy."  When they are extremely uniform, I've been able to find pattern defects.

But the rugs I get from this merchant remind me of perfect stencils.  The only thing I can surmise is that they were woven on metal looms in a factory consistent way or they are in fact power loomed and they've figured out some way to make them look hand knotted on the ends.

If these are hand made, can you tell me how they achieve such horizontal uniformity and why they sell so cheap?

Based on my limited knowledge, it looks like there are has been significant fading in this rug - I also notice lighter purples.  I seem to recall someone saying that lighter purples can be the sign of a dye fading because of a chemical was or aniline dye or something like that.

I didn't see any bleeding so my assumption would be that this is a vegetable dyed rug that was chemically treated and has fading in time because of the original chemical treatment???

It also looked like there might be parallel green weft or am I seeing things?

So assuming it is man-made but had a chemical wash that has caused premature fading, what kind of longevity and value does this rug have?  Is that why it was so cheap or did I just luck out?

-Darius

Response:

You have a lot of excellent questions here, we will try and address all!

Yes, this is a hand knotted rug.  It is from Iran.  While it's not uncommon for some sellers to be deceptive, intentionally or unintentionally.  However, looking at the weft, and the general arrangement of such, we can easily determine there is no "faking" that this rug as being is hand knotted.  It actually is a true "Oriental Carpet".

Next, in line is the uniform nature of such a this carpet.   How come this rug is so square, and perhaps even hint to being a machine made piece?  Without judgment, this type of rug or carpet is what would could be considered a "highly commercialized piece".  Produced perhaps in a city, there very likely was a great volume of such rugs and similar pieces were probably produced within an informal workshop.  The objective certainly was to create an Oriental Rug, but more so were produced with the intention of a lower price point, and destined for world markets around the world.  Perhaps more specifically tailored for export to America. 

The best and easiest ways to work on a large commercial scale would include several things.  As you mentioned, rigid looms would help.  Perhaps metal, but possibly even with secured and well squared wooden looms.  What also would add to the uniformity of an Oriental Rug such as like this would include experienced weavers, in conjunction with implementation of technology when and where available.  Reducing the labor is also important importing.  This brings us to the the refining of materials.  Refinement of wools would be left to machine milling.  Spinning of yarn & cotton in a machine mill yields a uniform, predictable, and evenly gauged material.  With all these factors combined: a rigid loom, experienced weavers, milled materials, and other, the product rendered will have just precisely the uniform features we see in your photographs.  You are right to question the "authenticity" of such a rug, but rest assured, this is a hand knotted piece.

To address the dyes, which will also ties into the price point the rug was purchased:  In creating a rug for commercial appeal, dyes used would  mostly be synthetic for the most part.  They are inexpensive, often very colorfast, although there are drawbacks to some less widely understood dyes from this era. 

Just as a side note, and generally speaking, both synthetic and natural dyes both have potential to run.  Color run has to do with two main things: one, poor quality dyes (which has often been blamed on synthetics) and secondly, over-saturation of dyes.  The process of coloring wool with natural dyes is on a much more personal and intimate level.  Physically, coloring wool with natural dyes is a more labor intensive process: requiring a great deal much more attention to detail.  The greater human intervention of actually dyeing, and then pre-washing before weaving, often go hand in hand.  That's not to say careful washing is not attended to with synthetics dyes, just a conjecture. From the images, perhaps not that detailed, but it looks as though appears there may be slight color run in each ivory spandrel (in the corners of the field) which have slight color run. Color run is hard to identify, as it may appear as though it's the intended color for that one area.  However, many colors will run, not just dark to light areas. This does affect value.

Now, with this rug there may be several things going on.  We do believe these are synthetic dyes given the look of color, reduction to brilliance in certain areas, and general uneven distribution of tone.  Not necessarily the case with this rug, but worth mentioning the following.  It's not uncommon for some older rugs to have been produced in Iran and intended for American markets, then banned for export by the embargo in the late 70's.  Many of these rugs would pile up unused in warehouses, having from anticipating a greater market than what actually culminated.  It's probably fair to say This particular rug is in or around the age of a semi-antique of 50 years so it probably missed this export dilemma.  However, one thing remains clear about rugs from this era, and somewhat before too: Often these rugs were subjected to chemical washes to renew their appeal, and match current trends in demand.  Colors which were once popular in the early to early 60's through the late 70's had radically changed.  One way to compensate for such differences would be to give such pieces a chemical wash to dull colors, or soften patina.  In combination with synthetic dyes and chemical washes, you will be talking about inevitable chemical reactions.  While the varying colors for this rug may be attributed to fuchsine dyes, oxidation, or fading from UV, it's also fair to say that if this had been chemically treated, such anomalies within the consistency of color may also be attributed to the application of chemicals, the concentration of such, and the orientation it had been bathed.  These are large rugs, so it's not uncommon to see certain areas absorb chemicals at different rates than others.  Unevenly mixed bath may also have affected some areas greater than others. Colors may also be affected by the density and or depth of the wool.  Lower pile does not have the same amount of similar toned wool behind it, rendering lighter areas on some rugs in addition to possible exposure of weft (not to be confused with light and dark sides of a rug).  I do see the weft is a different color than white on this rug, however, the lower areas seen above may be lighter due to less fiber. Inconsistencies in color (if not abrash), will always adversely affect value, more severely if they are blotchy such as in this example.

There's no question that a such a carpet or rug is a decent "deal".  In fact, we've seen many sellers on Craigslist who have purchased rugs off eBay for sale in local areas, often using the identical images they purchased the rug from for their own advertising purposes.  We've even seen some ebay sellers purchase such rugs from other dealers on eBay and offer them in their own stores with outrageous prices and posting a "best offer" trying to catch some unsuspecting buyers.  This is an ongoing problem.  There's not necessarily anything wrong with reselling a rug (unless the price is targeting careless buyers), in fact, many of these "older looking" rugs have great appeal even with the inconsistencies.  However, there are important points to make regarding such pieces:  Repairs (especially patches), lower or uneven pile (knotheads, etc.), inconsistent colors, fading etc. will all severely affect the monetary value of a rug.  But again, there are many consumers who understandably place aesthetic value on such pieces simply for being because they’re older, and because they are hand knotted. The fact is, these are not rugs that most dealers would have in their showroom. Perhaps antique shops dabbling a little in rugs may.

As for the longevity of such a piece, it's very difficult to say.  Color fade may continue to accelerate through the years, wear is inevitable as with most any rug receiving decent traffic.  There are things you can do as a preventative measure to increase longevity.  Walk on the rug with socks.  This will help continue to polish the wool, and is far less abrasive to the rug than rubber soles.  Rotate the rug every year.  Do not expose it to areas of the room with heavy extended periods of daylight.  Treat stains as quickly as possible.  Put a pad underneath it, this will help evenly distribute variances in floorboard height or wires routed underneath the rug.  Vacuum the reverse side periodically to push dirt and grit out from the base of the pile.  These are very abrasive particles which will reduce the lifetime of your rug. 

Here is some additional info on premature wear of Oriental Rugs and Persian Carpets.   There's a lot more info in our Archive too!

Thanks for bringing these important questions to the table.  If you have any additional questions or if anything was unclear, please comment on the text field below.

-Rug Rag

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