Hello.
From what i know about Tudeshk Nain and i had some in my hand in past they use to have a red outer border. The one you show do have all caracteristics of typical Nain rug.
The Tudeshk are as fine as Isfahan rugs. The weaving and the wool are brilliant. The Tudeshk Nain are often made with light colors like white and blue.

This is a response I got from the seller, "This perticular rug is woven in a major rug weaving city of Isfahan in Iran (Persia) and the finest of the weavers reside in the province of Nain,hence the name Persian Nain isfahan."
I just bought the rug and have not gotten it yet, it is wool on cotton with silk highlights and thought to be from the 1930's (but doubt it). The price was decent, the size 2'10x4'2 (small enough to fit into my tiny home) I'll post some better pictures when I get the rug. I'm an Ebay junkie!

Nain is in the Iranian province Esfahan (which is named after the most major city of the province, which is Esfahan), so that seems to be what the seller refers to. (There is no province of Nain, as far as I know). The rest is strange. Rugs woven in the city of Esfahan tend to be finer than rugs woven in the city of Nain.

The rug looks like it is from the Ebay seller faresalesman. About 95% of their rugs are advertised as "c1930s" and "c1920s" but are really much more recent, and almost always chemically washed for an antique look. Most buyers seem not to notice the discrepancy in rug age and description fo rug age. There are hundreds of feedback along the lines of "rug as described" for these rugs. (This doesn't mean that the rugs are bad, of course.)

It is not a Nain, and it is not a Isfahan. It is a Tabbas with Nain design from the Khorassan district near Meshed, ca. 1995 - 2000. Since the early 1990 producers from Nain opened workshops in this area to produce cheap copies of Nain rugs. Just look at picture with the knots! A rug like this is ca. 150 - 200 US$ new. Due to its design it is sold as Nain. Nain usually produces three types of rugs. Noh (nine) La, Shish (six) La, Tshar (4) La - each name tells the number of thin threads that are roled together into one thread that makes the warp. The thinner the thread, the finer the rug. Real Nain Noh La are at about ca. 230 - 410 kpsi, Shish La ca. from 410 - 650 kpsi, Tshar La up to 1100 kpsi.
The production in the city of Nain is quite new, ca. 80 years old. Pioneer in establishing rug production was Hadj Fatollah Habibian. As a young man, he leared rug makeing in Isfahan and established rug production in Nain after his return to his hometown. As Chris explained, the only remarkable production before this was in the village of Tudeshk. These rugs where also infuenced by the design of Isfahan.

Isfahan is something totally different.

Isfahan is half of the univers. This maxin was made by european travellers who visited Isfahan during the time the Safavid kings made Isfahan their capitol. The infuence of the Isfahan court rug production is visible in all floral rugs made worldwide. Isfahan rugs have more color, are more complex in design, and have a different design set up.
Fine qualities are fine wool and silk highlights pile on silk warp and fine cotton weft. One tip is to look for a signature. If it is signed on top of the carpet it is a Nain, if it is signed on the buttom of the carpet, it is a Isfahan - this fits for at least 99% of these rugs. To find out where top and buttom are, look for the direction the pile material is laying. If your hand goes over the pile, and has no resistance from the rug, you are going from top to buttom.

Here is a little checklist you might like to use (will work 99 out of 100 times!:

Design:
Cream colored outer border and border, inside blue, red, green or cream, medaillion and corners creame, 4 - 8 colors - most of the time Nain.
Other than cream color outer border, border and medaillion not cream, more than 8 colors - most of the time Isfahan (exeption! antique Tudeshk).

Weave:

if design is Nain, and kpsi is less than ca. 200 -> Tabbas
if design is Nain, and kpsi is up to ca. 400 -> Nain Noh La or Nain design Naishapour (near Meshed)
if design is Nain and kpsi is up to 650 - Nain Shish La or fake Shish La from Naishapor (near Meshed)

if design is Isfahan, kpsi is up to ca. 400 -> Isfahan larger than 9 x 6 or cheaper quality from the village of Nadjafabad near Isfahan
if design is Isfahan, kpsi is more than 400, warp is silk -> low grade Isfahan or better grade Nadjafabad.
If designis Isfahan, kpsi is up to 650 or more, warp is silk, wool is very soft and has silk highlights -> Isfahan

The picture on this link shows from the left:
Nain Tabbas - Nain Shish La - Tudeshk antique
http://www.artoriental.d.../TabbasShishTudeshk.jpg


The picture on this link shows a "Shish La Nain" design rug from Neishapour
http://www.artoriental.de/WebD/Naishapour.jpg

The picture on this link shows a fine 654 kpsi Isfahan commercial and one in luxury artist quality:
http://www.artoriental.de/WebD/2Isfahancorner.jpg
http://www.artoriental.de/WebD/2Isfahanmiddle.jpg

The picture on this link shows a fine quality Noh La Nain:
http://www.artoriental.de/WebD/Nohla.jpg

The pictures on these links show a Tshar La Nain with 1100 kpsi:
http://www.artoriental.d...bshop/images/3454-4.jpg
http://www.artoriental.d...bshop/images/3454-1.jpg
http://www.artoriental.d...shop/images/21004-a.jpg
http://www.artoriental.d...shop/images/21004-p.jpg


The respose of the seller is not correct. Maybe he does not know better, or he likes to tell tales from 1001 nights :-)). But if the price was not to high, you made good buy. It will last quite a while and bring a lot of joy to you. It is not a bad rug, it is just not what it is sold as. No more, no less.

But you bought a lot of real nice rugs also - the Bidjar in your other post was a good catch! It is part of collecting to get a rug that is not all perfect once in a while. With an open eye and your interest in this beautiful art you will find a lot of rugs that will be great addition to your collection. Ebay is a good source to sell and buy. If you find anything that you like and you are not sure, just post it, many members in this forum will be glad to give advice. You might be right about the stretching of the truth, but what I found out is that most sellers are no rug poeple, they just buy and sell stuff, how should they know about something so complex like persien rugs? Often they just don`t know better.

This may be so. But Faresalesman, from whom the above rug comes, has this on their website, and 95 percent of their rugs are seriously misdesribed:

"We're a third generation rug dealers buying and selling fine oriental rugs here in New York for more then two decades.were three brothers who handle all aspects of this business traveling often and far into old citys and villages and estates to find these magnifisant RARE items offered to you here on ebay we also do try to buy antiques on ebay,we handle all professional repair(over casting worn ends, professionaly repairing any holes,tears,and removal of stains and dust and dirt build up of hand made rugs).our father migrated to U.S. in 1978 and our familly followed bringing with us the knowledge and keen eye for rare antiqueties (RUGS,BAGS,TAPESTRY's......)and were proud to stand by our great salesmanship and customer satisfaction, because our father always said "REPUTATION IS LIKE A RUG WITH OUT PROPER CARE IT WILL BE DESTROYED"."

I received the rug and shipped it back today...I thought I could live with a lesser quality rug, but no, I'm on a mission for the real thing.

Nice rug, good design. You are right, it is a Nain from the city of Nain. It is fine enough to possibly be a 4 La. If you take one fringe, and turn one warp string against its spinning direction, it will open into thinner strings. If you get 4, it is a 4 la, if you get 6 it is a 6 la and so on. The signature is fake, but still a wonderful rug.

KAD has already commented on this rug a couple posts originally after these stating it was a nice Nain. It was on ebay with one bid for $99, not meeting reserve, and buy it now for $400. It came to the end of the auction and recieved no other bids (at eh very end of the auction I tried to bid higher but since there were no other bidders it wouldn't allow me. I contacted the seller and he stated he wanted $250 which I paid and now have the rug. The rug was just too nice to pass up and the seller needed the money. It is a 3X5

Even before this discussion I tried to pull the thread apart. I came with the three pictured, but I'm not sure if that is simply because I couldn't get to pulled apart agan to 6. I have a hard time countng the knots It is a very simple well balanced design, which I love. I'm not sure if the simplicity moves it down a grade.

The tape on the quarter is due to it hanging on my wall. Just too nice to put on the floor. and it joins two others to balance my room.

Where would this rug fall regarding grade