I bought an antique or semi-antique rug fragment with a signature and/or location cartouche which I can't decipher. If anyone could tell me what it says, and what kind of rug this comes from, and what age it has, I'd be delighted. I can give you the following additional info about the fragment:

(i) it is really a "patchwork" rug made from the main and guard border of a rug of at least 10 feet length (assuming that the cartouche was in the middle of the top main border, it definitely is in the top main border), made in Iran at a much later date than the original rug.
(ii) wefts and warps are undyed cotton, pile is handspun wool, two strands per knot, with natural dyes.
(iii) there are the following 16 (or 18) colours in the fragment: light beige, beige, light brown, medium brown, light blue, medium navy, dark navy, medium teal, very dark teal, olive green, medium green, medium rust red, dirty salmon pink, light purplish pink, medium purplish pink purplish burgundy, a wonderful dark berry purple, dark charcoal grey. (There are more shades than this, these are the colours the weaver distinguished, though the very dark teal and the charcoal may be the same "colour" for the weaver.)
(iv) absence of any yellow or ivory.
(v) handle is medium to stiff.
(vi) there are no original selvages.
(vii) the signature/location cartouche is six inches diameter, and the writing, although it looks like thicker wool, seems simply to use three strands of exactly the same wool.

That's probably more info than anyone wanted ... . You can also just look at the pics.
I put a pic of the back of the cartouche in mirror image, so it's easier to read. (First attached pic)

As to value of the fragment, should I let my cat sharpen her claws on it, or rather not? (I bought the fragment for very little money, I should add.)