Hi Rugfirm - Thanks for the info. I've been able to gather a little further information from others on this carpet. The opinion is that it is a hand-knotted rug. It's not Persian, which I expected. And it is thought to be fairly new (8 or less years). I went back to the store and took a couple more pics which I'm attaching. I noticed that there are blue marks every so often on the edge of the underside of the carpet. One person suggested that these were used for different purposes. Sometimes to track quality, progress on the loom, divide sections to different weavers. Most commonly they are consistently in 12" increments, and are used for purposes of measure.
I have a 15% off coupon, which would make the price about just under $1100. Based on your email, it sounds like a good value. Anyone else want to weigh in???
nrusinak attached the following image(s):