Kiskan is one of the worlds leaders in finishing oriental rugs. It is very common that rugs are finished by a special wash to give them a more sellable face. The old American Sarouk rugs where finished in New York with a special wash to give them more luster / shine. This is a chemical process that change the amout of the wools fat lanoline. A tea or herbal wash is a little like dying, the color particles of the tea or herb and water mixture cover the wools original color.
Kiskan offers different wash to finish oriental rugs. One of these is the gold wash that change the color red into a gold or camel tone. This was ususally made in the 1960`s. The rugs washed in this way where called Gold Afghan. Until today many Turkman or Afghan rugs are still finished at Kiskan, but most of them are washed to get more shine instead of color changes.
Positive or not - hard to say since there are different views. Collectors prefer "100% original", but where do you set the point? Most rugs today and also in the last 100 years where made to sell - this means it is made to fit a foreign taste. For me it is ok if the rug is finished in a way that makes it look better but it has to be sure the material is not damaged.
My view is in this case - positive addition.
To see the effect of a wash look at these two examples on Tabriz rugs that are almost identical. The first is a regular Tabriz in the colors it was made. Hard to sell at the given price today. The wash on the second rug bleached all colors down to give the rug this trendy Muted colors that came fashionable with choobi or Ziegler rugs ca. 10 years ago.
Today many persian rugs are bleached to make them fit todays market. The increase of value / ability to sell due to "better" colors is shown in the second rugs price. For me this type of treatment is more a damage instead of positive addition since this bleach wash damages the fiber.
http://rover.ebay.com/ro...&mtid=824&kw=lg
http://cgi.ebay.com/10x1...amp;hash=item5ad21ed885
I just picked out two examples among many on ebay. Just search for 1. Tabriz to find regular colors and 2. muted rug to find all the bleached stuff.
