The Oriental Carpet

The handmade carpet has existed in the Orient for at least 2,500 years. The earliest known piece is the Pazyryk carpet, found in a Scythian grave in Siberia in 1949, dating back to the 3rd-4th century B.C. Judging from the accomplished workmanship in the Pazyryk piece we can assume that rugs were made a long time before then.

Today's Oriental carpets are made in exactly the same way. All rugs are woven on a loom, from the primitive ground loom used by nomads to the sophisticated vertical loom of the city workshops. Warps are tied between the upper and lower beams, followed by a number of wefts to create a base for the first row of knots. These knots make up the actual pattern, tied around double warps in continuous rows, followed by wefts to secure the weave. When the rug is complete it is cut down from the loom, leaving a fringe of warp at each end.

The time and skills required are almost unimaginable. A weaver can tie on average 5-7,000 knots per day and still work for many months or even years to complete a carpet. A cost comparison would show that if an Oriental rug was woven in the western world, it would probably cost in the order of 15-25 times what it costs now. Even the cost of fine Antique Oriental rugs is grossly below par compared with other fields of Fine Arts.

In the past, great care was taken in using only the best wool, dyed with natural dyes only. The combination of hand spun wool and natural dyes has been perfected throughout history and is still beyond comparison. When the synthetic dyes arrived, replacing the old dyes almost completely by 1940, there was a severe drop in quality. Many synthetic dyes run, fade and interact badly to the viewer. Some also have a corrosive effect on the wool.

Because of the aggressive sharpness of the new synthetic colours it was deemed necessary to introduce the "antique wash". This is a chemical treatment which softens the colours and gives the wool an artificial sheen. It also weakens the materials and in the end breaks up the wool, giving the rugs a very short life expectancy. You will not find this kind of mass produced commercial merchandise at Peter Linden.

Old rugs dyed properly, and certain new rugs like DOBAGs, will hold their colours for centuries, the patina building up over time. Such rugs can be washed and maintained without fear of colour run, thereby ensuring a life expectancy covering many generations.

It is important to realise the difference between unique, original pieces and mass produced commercial goods. Early tribal and village rugs are guaranteed to be unique examples because the weavers worked free-style, from memory, not availing of pre-drawn cartoons. Old town rugs woven from cartoons are also likely to be unique because it was considered unethical to make more than one of a pair from each cartoon. After the War, commercial demands made it necessary to copy cartoons in large numbers and today most rugs are designed on computers in design studios. This means that if you buy a typical modern Oriental rug you are quite likely to buy one of a large number of identical examples. Obviously this has severe implications to its potential investment value, apart from all the other negatives like bad dyes and antique wash.

Peter Linden's policy is therefore to focus only on rugs woven before 1940, with good colours , in good condition. In addition we stock select examples of modern pieces with handspun wool, good dyes and original designs.

The Market Today

The reality today is that the vast majority of rugs on offer in the market today are of modern factory origin. A very small number of old, original pieces surface internationally, making stock sourcing very difficult. Thanks to a long established network we are still able to find good pieces, but with ever increasing difficulty and at increasing cost. Therefore if you buy a piece from Peter Linden you are sitting on a valuable asset, certain to hold its value, resalable through the gallery and recognisable anywhere in the international rug markets.

If you are looking for the genuine article, you should not buy rugs on holidays, in "Closing Down Sale" or "70% Discount" shops, or at travelling hotel auctions, "Urgent Liquidation Sales" etc., There you will only find instantly replaceable warehouse goods of little intrinsic or investment value.