Hi everyone!
First, boy, life is a heady adventure every second! Learning, earning illumination, …and once in a while, coming upon a little nest of not only true pundits within a highly esoteric field (no rug pun intended), but also warm and fuzzy collegial ones!!!
How NOURISHING!!!!!! This is why we need 3 puters and warpspeed broadband…to harvest these uncommon GOODIES!
Now, pls get a beverage and prepare for boring, cause I am moved to share a chronology of events only those ensorcelled by rugs could stand…. before posting images of something I find repulsive and offensive to my novice level, opposite Doris Duke (learned about her here) savvy re glorious floor art, provenance and, OMG, hammer prices thru the Ozone.
A few years ago, I was unexpectedly forced to sell a precious, inherited semi antique “American” (Mahajaran)
Sarouk, I believe, from the 30s, no center medallion, no Ferahan nuthin and the overall pattern was not vulgar it was lyrical; the classic vivid but not garish red field, not painted I think, the typical dk blue field in main border….and in perfect condition with very little wear, beautifully proportioned all original……though I did have the fringes replaced for major money when I had it washed.
I contacted an infamous high end female rug person here in Manhattan with Initials DB, sent pics. I was told it was A fine example of the genre, but totally below them (the distain was clear); they would hook me up (hardly the same as hand knotted, hooking, any variety, lol.) with the right dealers who would buy the rug. (I was also told, the next day the Pope was getting Married.) I trusted…and I am iin no way stupid, but when vulnerable, yr differential intelligence LEAVES. I am not naïve but am incapable of opportunism and so, taken aback by it.
Local, ignoble, caricature-defining rug dealers arrived singly & in pairs salivating with opportunism... calling each other on their cells I was shocked to realize, gaming perniciously, pretending they were leaving, coming back, hurling numbers like invectives... at least I knew were insulting and refused to the extent I was able…. including nobody, I pray, who is member of THIS community.
I am not engineered for this kinda commerce, the NFL or the end justifies the means. THEY NEVAH EVAH DO. Such sleazoid stuff may bring triumphs but they can bring no real JOY. Anymore than A Cartier watch or Hermes anything…can impart class in a lowlife.
Finally, in double OT, as it were, of this protracted sickening. one of “them” paid me what I now know was an unfair price (tho I stood up for $1,600) Hardly ATYPICAL, I now know.
and took my precious puppy.
I was so bereft, I immediately threw out the pics…..Delete, delete, delete and some were 35mm…I now regret that very much.
I have never fully recovered from this incident, and for many and complex reasons.
I think I can now manage to buy a replacement... which I hope will foster my healing and mitigate my shame. ….but in my new learning curve about the rugs I cherish, these sturdy, lovely, unpretentious peasants, the larger semi antique “American” Serous….I do not Luvs them arbitrarily, and I know snobs diss them (bite me Doris Duke who is dead anyhow)…finding things online, at auction, at vendors I email for prices….I am stunned at the asking prices for similar rugs in good condition. I mean, I am STUNNED. Wut the opportunists gave gave for mine, I now think, made me even a bigger jerk than I realized….but when they smell blood they turn into Bernie Madoff. OMG
Sorry if that all sounded neo-Shakespearean TRAGIC or HBO tear-jerker production titled KPSI (LOL)......but RESPONSES to such things things are SUBJECTIVE. Like fine antique rugs, we are each unique.
Now, pls wake up from all that boring and prepare to see declasse and ugly. As fate would have it, a few days after my beloved rug got gone……someone in my famous Landmark building moved and threw out a rug. I hated it, but took it to preclude seeing bare oak floor.
Now that I might be able to buy a replacement for my Sarouk…. not sure now given the prices appear far higher than I anticipated…I started focusing on this ugly I found with some of the newacuity I have gleaned from this generous community….and so, more eyes by Marcel Proust (as per his famous quote).,
It is around 9+ X 13+……bears no resemblance to anything classic, NEO CLASSIC, nuthin …..has dark navy field with florid vines, pseudo ferns, tendrils and related blights. I am sure it is machine made…tho learning about the weft phenomenon, it does have them in the right direction, considering it iw a WOOF, lol. It has no sheen, no luminosity, no life, no beauty, no harmony or essence. It’s like something someone with no eye did with PhotoShop. Pls do not be offended you guys with rug eyes. I did the burn test, and as I thought, the pile is at least wool. as is the selvage. The pile is very dense, not in a good way, more in a sinus congestion way, OK?
It has depressed me for a long time.
I have made some pics and will upload them. I am doing many to replace quality. Forgive the color variations, This teeny Nikon is over engineered crap and trying to kill me. And I build my last computer, OK? I am sure I has a little rug dealer inside its zoom. lol
Thinking I might now manage to afford a decent replacement worhty of my precious puppy, tho again, now not sure learning the prices--- I was going to throw the ulgy back out. Learning a bit more here in the Cornucopia…struck me, maybe I could sell it for something Which would contribute to replacement Sarouk or related puppy I could luv. But I odn thin so. I still think it is worthless crap.
I so appreciate any input I might receive…..forget this PURE OASIS mitigating a TRULY POLLUTED arena!
Jill in Manhattan
I could not manage an image of more of the rug, I will if it's necessay, but all the below will depress everyone enuff.
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