I just took delivery on a brand new Persian carpet that was presumably imported before the embargo began. I bought it from a major online retailer that sells a lot of different household merchandise and does not focus specifically on hand-knotted rugs.

The photos on the seller’s site were really bad: dark, muddy and color registration was way off. I had to turn my monitor brightness to maximum in order to make out details of the pattern. But since I could return it, and I was having a terrible time finding a Persian rug of this particular width that was not predominantly red in color, I decided to take a flyer on it.

As it turns out, now that I’ve received and inspected the rug, much of the information provided on the retailer’s site is wrong or questionable, though I think mostly in a good way. Please tell me what you think.

The rug was described as a Mahal pattern “made in the Sultanabad village.” (By which I assume they mean Arak.) However, after looking at lots of Mahals online, this does not seem like anything I’ve seen. It has a traditional layout but the overall design features 40 flower pots and many birds. There are 11 nice soft colors: 3 blues and 3 greens, dark brick red, gold, ivory, brown and gray. There are no tags on the rug.

The site listed the KPSI as 120, but by my count, it is about 16x15 (240 KPSI). The pile was listed as 1/2” thick but in fact it is slightly less than 1/4”. The wool has a pleasant “hand.”

Actual size is not as the dealer stated (7’ x 9’2”). As it turns out, the rug is not straight and varies from 6’10” to 7’ wide and from 9’10” to 10’ long. Fortunately the greater length is fine with me and the fact that it’s not square doesn’t bother me unduly. It looks fine in the space. But how much does the crookedness of this rug affect value? (I paid $1500.)

My photos were taken from the bottom of the rug. There is no abrash: the lighting is just very uneven in the room, so one end appears much lighter.

Mainly I want to know if I’ve overpaid, and if this seems like a Mahal to you.

Thanks for any information you care to offer!

Thanks. Yes, as I mentioned, rug is brand new. If it is made in India I am sending it back, as it was sold as Persian. I've checked the KPSI in a few areas and you're right, it's inconsistent, which might explain why it's so crooked.

It's too bad -- I like the design very much and the size is good, but I bought this rug as a Persian and that's what I expected to receive.

The pile is wool, no question. Probably hard to discern the material from a photo, but it's definitely not viscose.

As to it being from India, maybe. I bought it from Worldstock, a nonprofit division of Overstock.com that supposedly buys goods at "fair trade" prices directly from artisans. They say it was purchased from a woman weaver in Iran. (Presumably pre-2010 embargo and is old stock that's been sitting around since.) I agree that the style is hard to pin down, and the seller doesn't seem to have its act together (wrong dimensions, bad photo, etc.) However, you would think they'd at least know where the rug was actually produced, if they bought it direct from the weaver.