First and only purchase. We bought the rug because we liked it and it fit our room and our taste. Since we knew little about these rugs, we had no idea what was better than anything else, other than our own common sense notion that finer weave and denser feel likely was a better rug. After we purchased this rug, I became curious about these wonderful craft works. My wife is very crafty, and does all manner of handwork, including some raven's tail weaving in the T'lingit tradition, as well as hand weaving on a loom. Curiosity lead to the web, and lots of reading and this site. Frankly, I was at a minimum trying to test the veracity of the seller, who seemed trustworthy, and after (not before) we decided to purchase the rug explained that it was Turkish, Hereke, wool on cotton and circa 1960's and in excellent condition. I did not ask him how he knew those aspects of the rug's provenance, we just took the information at face value not really knowing what it meant.
As I did more research, I learned that Turkish Hereke rugs are considered fine, and age, given similar condition, is inversely correlated with value - an excellent condition older rug is worth more than the same condition newer rug within limits, or so it seems. In part I learned this by fooling around with the value estimator on this site. That caused me to wonder whether the seller's representations were genuine. Again, we have absolutely no reason to doubt, but this seems to be a field of merchandizing well riddled with less that straightforward honesty and integrity!
Your confirmation that this rug appears to be, in fact, a Turkish woolen Hereke rug of good quality is reassuring, although if you told us it was something else we would still like it and be happy, we would just have considerably less faith in the seller. As to age, I guess, without any real knowledge basis, that age brings color and other changes to the visible warp threads and wear patterns on the rug generally. For my own interest, as well as others on this site, might you explain further, or direct me to research sources as to how to best age a rug. I recognize the this process is a good deal art as well as science, but any further info would be helpful. If certain further pictures might help, with better resolution lenses or better lighting (these were taken with an iphone with a flash), I would be pleased to post same. Thanks again. We really do appreciate your knowledgeable advises.
