Hi Bart
Like you said, these pics are not all that great to go by. However, going by experience and gut feeling, I think this is more than likely a wool pile on cotton foundation. More often than not, silk rugs would photograph different. You can see the pile is pretty dull. This doesn't really reflect (no pun intended) the quality of the rug, but alludes to the idea that it may not be silk. Even if a silk rug were dirty, most likely it would reflect more light than this rug.
The design of the rug is known as a "European design" or sometimes referred to as a "William Morris" Design. Typical repeating field of floral arrangements or bouqets, with heavier outlining in a lattice orientation set on a dark background. This particular rug is probably from the mid to late 1980's
It looks to me like this is a Chinese rug, perhaps a 160 line which translates to around 180 KPSI. Pretty high knot count from what I see. The only other origin this may be is Pakistan. However, Pakistan rugs would more often than not have slightly shorter kilims toward the fringe. This would be easier to tell with better photographs and a quarter on the reverse side photo
It's pretty clear the rug has a high knot density. The design is fairly popular, and has solid value retention going by the colors which are not overboard. I'm leaning toward this being a Chinese rug going by the sorts of color used, and the shapes, size and execution of design of the flowers from the close up the seller shows.
If my assumptions are correct,
if the rug were in perfect condition as though it had been cut from the loom, it would not be outrageous to see something similar with very good quality wool sell in the vicinity of $4,000 to 6,000 in the size listed approximately 10 years ago. Some sellers in more urban areas may even have a higher price than this. However, this is a used rug, being sold by a private seller. Expect to pay a fraction of this.
Send the seller an email and ask them to have the rug verified by Rug Rag. With better detail images we'll be able to go over the rug and say more definitively what it is. Hope this all helps
