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...what is it?
mosaic08 Offline
#1 Posted : Saturday, August 23, 2008 10:55:50 AM(UTC)
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okay, this is the rug that sort of got me into the whole oriental rug thing...it was discoverd in the basement of the previous condo we purchased on the south side of chicago (hyde park/ university of chicago/ robie house area)...the condo was the first floor of an old grey-stone built in 1892...blocks from where the columbians fair was being held...

...anyway, it was beyond repair/resotration, but i am wondering what it was and if it were not ruined it had any monetary value... thanks...
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RugPro Offline
#2 Posted : Saturday, August 23, 2008 11:18:45 AM(UTC)
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I haven't had too much time to look at the images, and can't tell very much from them. What I can tell you is that going by certain design elements in the border, the rug appears to be a very old khorassan. Additionally, the design lends itself to a similar type of feel to the "Ardebil Carpet" as seen in the victoria Albert Museum. Sometimes it's spelled ardabil.

Really nice looking rug, I'd have to see a lot better images than this to say what it really is or if it would be worth anything. My guess is it would be worth something.

From the pictures, I can absolutely say this is a rug that would get me into the rug scene too. Very pretty.

mosaic08 Offline
#3 Posted : Saturday, August 23, 2008 12:21:16 PM(UTC)
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well, and here's the rest of the story...

...i took it somehwhere in evanston illinois not knowing anything and we unrolled it to find a group of dead mice and a lot of holes and a very strong musty smell. the photos i took and the ones i shared were only lit from the light of the flash...there were no lights down there that worked... obviously when i rolled it up to take it i did not see the dead mice...it was crazy... we ended up throwing it out in a dumpster after the guy made us quickly get it out of his store...i was wondering though if he just told me it was ruined and then secretly went into the dumpster and got it out and sold it for millions...that i do not know, but i didn't seem as though it could be salvaged so i took his word for it... we'll never know...
KrowGyrl Offline
#4 Posted : Saturday, August 23, 2008 1:47:24 PM(UTC)
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That's pretty funny Mosaic. My suspicion is that he was sincere in his hustling the rug out of his shop. Having seen a carpet that sold for millions, those big ticket items don't end up rotted in people's basements. And condition is a very big piece of the puzzle when it comes to worth. The condition as you describe and how it looks in the photos, looks pretty rough. In my rug class, the teacher talked about what a rug we are assessing would bring in perfect condition, and then start taking away for problems, and the cost of restoration/repair. It sounds like it probably had mold and water rot. Is that fair to say. If so, that's pretty much end of story. I saw some incredible rugs in my teachers storeroom that he said would have some pretty high price tags on them if they were perfect. As they were, he said he coldn't get more than a few hundred bucks or a couple of thousand for any of them. And none of them were in such bad shape that I wasn't drooling over them. There are, after all, only so many Stradivarius carpets in the world. And then the question of value is an interesting one. It seems that the super high price carpets are either mamoth size or have some fascinating historic provenance. Like the Doris Duke carpet, that sold for so many millions in part because of what it was, in part because of Doris Duke, (Doris Duke, who cares?) but I think the real value of the carpet was in the commentary by one of the greatest art historians in the world that the carpet was the, single, and highest apex product of the Abbasid period of imperial carpets. Not because he said it, but because it was true. I am sure the man who bought it never heard of Doris Duke.
RugPro Offline
#5 Posted : Saturday, August 23, 2008 8:14:40 PM(UTC)
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I agree.

The funny thing is, GENERALLY speaking, many of these rugs as seen at sotheby's and other auction houses are not in particularly great shape either. In fact, the majority I would say are in what would be considered fair to good condition. There obviously are exceptions, but the quality of rugs seen and the condition of such, in my opinion, are fall drastically short from what level of collectible status their sales had in the 70's. Of course, many of these rugs were purchased by overseas investors, and swallowed up into private collections never see the light of day since.
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