Although our site is a wealth of Oriental Rug Knowledge, there are other good places on the internet as well as some good books about Persian Rugs.

  Below you will find a list of some of these resources; we compiled this list for your benefit, take advantage of it!

Wikipedia Articles

Oriental Rugs – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oriental_rug

“By definition, oriental rugs are rugs that come from the “Orient” (East). The simple definition of the term would be rugs that come from (were made in) an Asian country such as: China and Vietnam in the east to Turkey, Maghreb countries, Cyprus and Iran in the west, the Caucasus in the north, and India in the south…”

Persian Rugs- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_rug

“The Persian carpet  is an essential part of Persian art and culture. Carpet-weaving is undoubtedly one of the most distinguished manifestations of Persian culture and art, and dates back to ancient Persia. In 2008, Iran’s exports of hand-woven carpets was $420 million or 30% of the world’s market.  There is an estimated population of 1.2 million weavers…”

Although Wikipedia is open-source, it is a great source of knowledge. Wikipedia is about as good a source of accurate information as Britannica, the venerable standard-bearer of facts about the world around us, according to a study published by the journal Nature.

Rug Books

http://www.rugbooks.com/

This website has a large selection of rug-related books to choose from. The site is appropriately titled “Books on Oriental Rugs, Carpets, Ethnographic Textiles and the People Who Wove Them”.

Oriental Rug Repair Co

http://www.navajorugrepair.com/orientalrugbooks.htm

This is the site of a rug repair and cleaning service

located in Arizona, but they have compiled a nice list of interesting rug books. One of the books they recommend, Oriental Rugs Today, is highly recommended and interesting as I have read it myself.

More resources coming next month!

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Every month or so, we will post a few interesting rug-related terms and their definitions here for your knowledge and enjoyment. Always educate yourself on a topic before you make a purchase, especially with something like Oriental Rugs!

Kurdish Village Rugs – Rugs woven in the villages of Iranian Kurdistan. These are coarsely woven rugs with the symmetric knot, usually on a wool foundation.

Later rugs may have a cotton foundation. Often these rugs are abstract versions of classic patterns such as the Herati, Mina Khani or harshang patterns. There is a wide variety of geometric designs, diamonds, Memling gul and others used in these rugs.

Moquetter carpet – An eighteenth-century French velvet carpet or an early American-made Axminster. In French, any broadloom carpet.

Monofilament – A long, continuous fiber or filament. A common feature of synthetic fibers, but only occurring naturally in silk fiber.

Oriental Rug – An indefinite term. Originally, this term applied only to hand-knotted pile rugs woven in the Near East and Asia.

In current usage, the term includes all hand-knotted mpile rugs, regardless of origin, as well as many of the flat-woven rugs of the Near East and Asia. “Persian Rug” is sometimes used incorrectly as a synonym.

Orphan Rugs – From 1884 through the end of the First World War, thousands of Armenians died in the ethnic struggles between Christians and Muslims in Turkey.

Orphanages were founded for the homeless Armenian children where they were employed in weaving rugs. There are examples bearing inscriptions from Aintab in south central Anatolia and from Agin in eastern central Anatolia.

Acid dyes – Dyes derived from coal tar through the action of nitric acid. They produce bright colors in animal fibers. They are soluble in water and must be used in an acid solutions. The first such dye was Bismarck brown developed in 1862.

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If you’re looking for promotions, inventory liquidations, sales, going out of business sales, big discounts, two rugs for the price of one, and the like, you will have come to shop at the wrong place.

When you hear of an event offering huge discounts (say, 40% off) you should ask yourself, 40% off WHAT?  Think about it.  After spending a fortune advertising this sort of event while still paying overhead and so forth what kind of profit could one expect to make?  The answer is little to none.  Unless, of course, the products are marked up to the extent that offering 40% off still allows for a handsome profit.  The same is true with a dealer who offers you a “deal”.  If he offers a large discount you can assume that the “asking price” is inflated in the first place.

Essentially, if it sounds too good to be true it probably is.

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1. Whether it is wine, coffee, urine, paint, or whatever, the first step is to remove as much of it as possible from the rug– as soon as possible.

Paper towels work well. Keep blotting until you have got as much out as possible.

2. After blotting, many spills will require diluting.

If it is clear that much of the spilled substance is still in the oriental rug, dilute it with water (assuming that the substance is water soluble)– as much water as necessary. That may mean a half cup for a small spill, or it may mean a quart of water for a major spill. Don’t get the rug sopping wet unless you need to.

3. Now back to blotting, get as much out of your rug as possible.

4. If the rug has become wet in the process, you needn’t panic.

Chances are that it can stay wet for at least several days without harm. Still, you will have to manage the wet rug and promote drying. If the rug is quite wet, you may have to elevate it to promote air circulation under it. You might just stuff some wadded up newspapers under it. You may wish to point a fan on the rug to circulate air.

5. If the rug is stained after all your efforts, consider taking it to a professional rug washer as soon as you can.

Very often spills come out in the wash.

6. DO NOT use spot removers on oriental rugs that are formulated for use on wall to wall carpeting. They will harm the wool pile of your rug.

Overall, Oriental rugs are extremely durable, in fact, they are some of the most durable type of rugs in the world. Hopefully a spill will never happen to one of your beautiful rugs but if it does, feel free to call Ageless Rugs or stop in the store for advice.

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Having a rug appraised by a certified rug appraiser is the best way to determine the age of a rug.

 Moreover, a certified rug appraisal is important when insuring a rug.  A “certificate of authenticity” may not be accepted by an insurance company if a rug is ever stolen or damaged by fire, water, etc.

At Ageless Rugs in Webster Groves, Missouri, we mainly carry ‘new’ rugs, but we also carry some old and antique rugs.

We also can direct you to a certified rug appraiser if you’d like us to.

Stop in our beautiful oriental rug store today to browse our extensive selection of these artistic treasures.

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Every month or so, we will post a few interesting rug-related terms and their definitions here for your knowledge and enjoyment.

Always educate yourself on a topic before you make a purchase!

Sample, set of samples -

A set of rugs, usually 6 by 9 feet, representing a broader range of programmed rugs. A sample rug is shown to a customer in a retail store.

The customer may then select a rug, on the basis of the sample, from a range of as many as 20 to 50 different rug sizes and colorways.

Ru-onaghi- A donkey cover. Such a cover is distinguished from a horse cover in that it has only one pectoral piece, rather than two.

Romania- Modern pile rug production in Romania was begun by Armenian refugees after the first World War. In the 1920s and 1930s, workshops in Romania wove fine copies of Caucasian and Turkish pile rugs. These copies were so convincing that some were purchased as authentic by major museums. Significant pile rug weaving for export began about 1950 and increased in 1975 after US tariffs were lifted.

Room-size rug-

Large rugs intended to cover most of the floor of a room in a Western dwelling. Typical sizes are from 8 feet by 10 feet, 9 feet by 12 feet, 10 feet by 14 feet, 12 feet by 15 feet, 12 feet by 18 feet, and 14 feet by 20 feet.

These sizes are not traditional Islamic carpet sizes, but sizes and proportions developed for the Western market in Iran and the late nineteenth century.

Lackchi- In India, sinuous weft in rugs.

Lampas- A fabric in which a pattern of supplementary weft floats is bound by a secondary binding warp which is supplementary.

Lanceolate leaves- A common floral motif in oriental rugs consisting of a narrow, curving, tapering leaf. Often, one or both edges are serrated.

Lamp-

The hanging oil lamp is a common motif in prayer rugs. It is placed close to, or hangs from, the apex of the mihrab.

The motif may refer to hanging lamps in mosques or serve as the symbol of God who is described in the Koran as “the light of the heavens and the earth”.

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At Ageless Rug Treasures, we feel that we offer the largest and most diverse selection of decorative rugs and carpets in the St. Louis area.

Moreover, we only stock unique rugs of high quality.  This is not to say that everything we offer is expensive.

Many of our rugs are affordable for anyone at modest and low prices.

Our rug store is conveniently located in Webster Groves.

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Weaving region: Iran
Categories produced: masterworkshop, workshop, village, and nomadic

For many people, the terms ‘Persian Rug’ and ‘Oriental Rug’ are the same.

Persia is seen as the spiritual, if not actual, home of rug-making and its name has become synonymous with some of the finest and most outstanding achievements in oriental textile art.

Much of this is due to the magnificent Court carpets of the 16^th and 17^th centuries which grace Western museums, and the 18^th and 19^th century masterpieces to be found in royal palaces and stately homes throughout the world.

Yet these intricate and highly sophisticated masterworks are only a part of a rug-making tradition that encompasses the entire spectrum of the weaver’s art.

Persia is exceptional in the number and variety of weaving groups.

No other country can boast the same range of masterworkshop, workshop, village, and nomadic rugs, and none even come close to the diversity of Persian design.

It is therefore hardly surprising that Persian compositions have not only been reproduced in countless machine-made carpets in the West, but also emulated by most other rug-producing countries in the East. Today most oriental rugs- whether from Pakistan, India, or the Balkans- are based on Persian designs, and even China, with its own ancient and unique heritage, is now producing rugs with Persian schemes.

Pahlavi Rugs- Special mention must be made of these masterworkshop and workshop items made in a handful of weaving centers from the 1930′s onwards, and generally considered to be among the most technically accomplished rugs ever made.

When the late Shah’s father came to power in 1924, he began a program of sponsorship aimed at elevating the Persian rug industry to levels not seen since the Golden Age in the 16^th and 17^th centuries. The term Pahlavi should only be applied to items made under royal commission, but in practice it is used for any rug made from these weaving centers produced in Pahlavi style.

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It is impossible to say with any degree of certainty exactly when in history, where, or by whom the first pile rugs were made.

The materials are considerably more perishable than those of other types of artifacts. And so very few have survived since before the 15^th century.

The earliest substantial collection of pile fabrics in existence, which dates between the 5^th and 10^th centuries AD, was excavated from Egypt, throughout Turkey, central Asia, and other parts of the orient.

However, there is a considerable amount of literary and pictorial evidence pointing to the existence of a flourishing tapestry and rug pile weaving tradition stretching from Greece into central Asia, which is at least 3000 to 5000 years old. The oldest intact oriental rug has been carbon dated to 500 b.c.

It is known as the Pazryk carpet and was found in the tomb of a tribal chieftain in Siberia.  The tomb flooded and froze, preserving it.

 Fragments of rug have been discovered which predate it.

Most scholars believe that the most advanced civilizations of the era used rugs mainly for decorative purposes – as wall hangings, bed spreads, and covers for seats.

Oriental rugs were probably brought into Spain by Moorish invaders during the 11^th and 12^th centuries, but it was not until the 14^th century that Italian merchants, trading with Turkey, and the near east, introduced them to the rest of Europe. It was a source of great prestige to have one’s portrait painted while sitting on, or standing near a Turkish rug. By the late 15^th and early 16^th centuries, the fashion for oriental rugs had spread throughout most of Europe. Henry VIII and Cardinal Wolsey were among the first to import into England. In summary, we can say that rugs were used by a number of civilizations, ranging from Greece to central Asia, during the 1^st millennium BC. They were probably in existence for some considerable time before that.

The most probable source of this innovation, however, would seem to be the nomadic herdsmen of central Asia, who possessed both an abundance of rug making material and a need to combat the harshness of climate and rain.

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Every month or so, we will post a few interesting rug-related terms and their definitions here for your knowledge and enjoyment. Always educate yourself on a topic before you make a purchase!

Gyab-Yol: A wall rug.

Haft rang: Dyed warps sometimes used in Senneh rugs. Seven colors were used to dye bands of warps. An Uzbeki ikat of seven colors is highly prized because of the complex dyeing process.

Kyongden: (Tibetan) A fringed runner less than sixteen feet in length.

Kyongring: (Tibetan) A fringed runner greater than sixteen feet in length.

Sizing: Starch or glue added to yarns or fabrics to increase their smoothness, stiffness, or bulk. Sizing is sometimes used in Oriental Rugs. The loss of sizing in a new rug may be noticed when it is washed for the first time and it becomes loose and floppy.

Palace Carpet: A carpet longer than 14 by 24 feet.

Pictorial Rug: A rug whose field is occupied by naturalistic or realistic representations of people, places, or things other than the conventionalized motifs. Because these rugs are not generally popular, Iranian dealers refer to them as “wrong design” or naqsh-e ghalat in their native tongue. Persian examples depict large animals such as horses, camels and lions, tales from Persian folklore and literature, and kings and historical personages. Beginning in the 19^th century, many pictorial rugs were woven in China.

Tentering (blocking): When rugs are taken from the loom and are not rectangular or do not lie flat, they may be wetted and dried on a stretched frame to correct the shape. The problem usually returns when the rug is washed.

Hair: Miscroscopically, hair is distinguished from wool in that hair contains a medulla or core consisting of a cellular structure of air pockets. In oriental rugs, some admixture of hair adds luster to the rug. Excessive quantities of hair diminish the wearing quality of the rug.

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