Knowledge, Logic Can Keep You From Taking Bad Rugs

As an appraiser and seller of Oriental rugs, Mark Aftabi has met too many people who had the wool pulled over their eyes by unscrupulous rug dealers.

One unfortunate woman, for instance, came to Aftabi with what she thought was a rare antique Persian rug. She had paid $12,000 for it at auction, where she was told it had once belonged to Persian kings.

“It was all stories,” says Aftabi, owner of Aftabi Oriental Rugs in Laguna Niguel. “The rug was actually an Indian carpet she could have bought for $2,500.”

For unwary buyers, it’s easy to be taken for a ride on an Oriental rug. They can be fooled into paying thousands for a cheap, poor-quality carpet that’s been passed off as an authentic, handmade rug.

A high-quality Oriental or Persian rug will appreciate in value over time. Antique rugs can sell for a few hundred thousand dollars. Two months ago, a 300-year-old antique rug sold at Sotheby’s in New York for $550,000, Aftabi says.

“The older and more unusual they are, the more valuable,” he says. “People collect them all over the world.”

A rug must be at least 100 years old to be an antique. If it’s 50 to 100 years old, it’s a “semi-antique.” A rug less than 40 years old is considered new.

To be valuable, the rug must be made entirely by hand.

Nadir Pirniakan, owner of Nadir Imports Oriental Rug International in Irvine and Costa Mesa, remembers watching villagers make Persian rugs in his native town of Tabriz, Iran.

He would travel to local mountain villages and see the dyed wool hanging outside the houses to dry. He would watch the villagers sitting at their looms, painstakingly knotting each thread. Sometimes five or more people worked on one rug at a time.

“They would sing while they worked,” Pirniakan says.

Their method of making rugs has remained unchanged for centuries.

“When I look at the rugs, they come alive,” Pirniakan says. “You can see the human labor.”

The workmanship on a fine rug can be seen with the naked eye: Every leaf, every flower, stands out in clear detail. All of the scroll work and shading is sharply defined.

“Californians think most fine rugs are thick,” Pirniakan says. “But a thinner rug is considered better. If it’s thick, the design won’t be as sharp and the picture will be blurred.”

Machine-made rugs lack the high definition of hand-loomed rugs.

Often, the manufacturer will silk-screen a pattern onto a rug, injecting the dye into the wool. Those rugs usually sell for a few hundred dollars at roadside stands, Pirniakan says.

Other companies stretch the rugs on a framework similar to a needlepoint frame.

“They use liquid glue and pour the wool on top, then a machine presses the wool through,” he says.

Over time, the glue emits an unpleasant odor, and “after 50 years, the rug isn’t worth anything,” he says.

Consumers can tell a lot about the quality of a rug by flipping it over and checking its back for glue or machine stitching.

“In order for a rug to be authentic, it must be hand-knotted--not just hand-loomed,” Aftabi says. “Each knot must be woven by hand.”

Some looms tie the knots automatically.

The number of knots also determines a rug’s value. Rugs should have at least 280 knots per square inch, according to Aftabi.

To calculate the number of knots, count the knots one inch horizontally and one inch vertically, then multiply the two figures. A truly fine rug can have 1,000 knots per square inch. It takes four people 12 to 15 years to make a single 9-by-12-foot rug that dense.

“When you have that many knots, the curvatures are very defined and the details stand out very sharply,” Aftabi says.

The more colors used in the design, the more valuable the rug. Artists must work harder to combine many different-color yarns, Aftabi says.

“A good rug should have more than 10 colors,” he says. Cheaper rugs might have just two or three colors.

High-quality Persian rugs have natural dyes that give the wool rich, permanent colors, whereas a cheap Indian rug will have dull colors.

“That’s why the colors on antique rugs still glow at you,” Aftabi says.

The dyes are made from vegetables, fruits--and even blood.

“The blood from insects and worms produces the most permanent red,” Aftabi says. “It takes 100,000 worms and insects to produce two pounds of red dye.”

Over time the colors fade, but this only adds to the rug’s allure.

“When the rug is first made,” Aftabi says, “it looks harsh to the eye because the colors are so bright. Over time, the colors become softer.”

The wool itself must be of good quality for a rug to appreciate. The best wools come from mountain areas, according to Aftabi. They have a high oil content, which gives the rug a soft sheen.

“They look silky even though they’re not,” he says. “Buyers should choose a rug that looks lustrous and shiny.”

Appraisers also judge a rug by the beauty of its design. Persian rugs from Iran are prized for their creative designs. Many, such as the tree of life, medallion and garden of heaven designs, are rich in ancient religious symbolism. Oriental rugs from China tend to have floral patterns.

A good-quality 9-by-12-foot rug starts at about $2,000. Any rug should be examined carefully before it is bought.

Always buy rugs from a reputable dealer who has been in the area for at least several years, Aftabi suggests: “You can’t get fine-quality rugs (everywhere), and even auctions are very tricky.

“Avoid going-out-of-business sales. Often, the dealers go around the country, opening up stores for a year then advertising heavily when they go out of business. They say the rugs are 80% off. It’s not logical.”

The dealer will say a rug is worth $15,000, advertise it as 75% off, and sell it for $5,000. The rugs are usually very poor quality, Aftabi says, and they can be bought for much less.

When the customer discovers that he’s bought a bad rug, the dealer has fled.

“Don’t trust the advertisements,” Aftabi says. “A good-quality rug will always sell itself.”