Here''s the rug:
http://flic.kr/p/gNnZiA

Sharafi, you were right on the mark! Uncanny. The rug was originally listed at $19,000+; limited-time sale reduced it closer to $1000. I offered somewhat lower and seller counter-offered. Sat on my hands after that.

Normally, I wouldn't care much about KPSI either, but rather, how the rug looks and feels...in actuality! Since bidding on an online rug doesn't afford one that opportunity, I hope to be supplied with as many tangible clues as possible. I'm focusing on this for a specific reason, from my personal experience. After I bought the "Gashgahi" mille-fleur (about which we've spoken on another thread), which I was so enamored with, I became fascinated with this tribe and bought a 5 x 7 Qashqai on ebay, years ago, at a ridiculously low price. I was a little shocked and disappointed when I received it--it was so coarse, the lines of the drawing, in comparison to my ultra-fine specimen. Of course, now I've learned that the mille-fleur pattern was a Qashqai outlier, generally executed by the highly-skilled Kashkoli sub-tribe...though mine points to the even more skillful workshops of Ghoochan. (My ebay Qashqai now graces a relative's apartment, and looks good, makes a bold statement, great with her American folk-art...but I couldn't live with it at the time.)

I'm not surprised that you date this to be just 20-30 years old. The seller dated the rug to the 1900-1939 period, but I had my doubts. I've seen a number of Qashqai rugs on ebay with a similar type pattern, a large scale field of diamonds emanating from a central geometric medallion. Frankly I love the pattern. And in this case, I love the saturated red field, decorated with what looks like gems. Some others I've seen of this type have shown clear dye-bleeding, which read, chemicals! But this one looks clean, pristine. The central medallion pics are most attractive; it looks finely wrought and beautifully drawn.

The seller DID provide many more images, the full gamut (just no ruler to the backside). What gave me pause were the close-ups of the corners and borders. Here's where the outlines betrayed a coarseness in the weave and a coarseness in the pictorial lines. But again, that could be a case of the camera misrepresenting what the eye will see in actuality. As much as it may have done in exaggerating its strengths. (N.B., I don't mean to use the word "coarse" pejoratively; I am simply referring to the clarity of the lines of the drawing. I love tribal weavings. Not all rugs are supposed to look a certain way, and if there's one thing I hate, it's those too-perfect Persian adaptations that hail from Pakistan, China, and India. Though the last of the group are often quite beautiful, and I could probably be convinced to pay them more serious heed.)

I guess I really need to see a rug before I commit to buying. There is still a need, for brick & mortar merchants!

Perhaps you can relay a word or two, about the general trends in Persian rug-weaving through the 20th century. I read that the use of natural dyes pretty much disappeared around...the 1940's? Wartime? (Is that why ebay has that 1900-1939 classification?) That the rug industry underwent a renaissance of late, with a resurgence in the use of organic dyes? When did that begin? Is that to say that many new rugs will be of better quality than those produced 30-70 years ago?

As always, thanks for your help. You're an invaluable teacher and have an eager student.

Thank you. Let me just quickly acknowledge a grave error on my part: The seller's original price quote was $1,900 (the shop price range you put it at), not $19,000!. That was a typo on my part, for which I apologize all around.