Usually the name of a rug tells its origin. Nain rugs are made in Nain, Qum rugs in Qum. Nain rugs where among the most expensive rugs until the end of the 1980`s due to the light color. Until then, most rugs where blue and red. The only exeptions where Nain, Isfahan, Tabriz. Of course there where other rugs with light colors, but very few. Also Nain was only producing high quality rugs using a very fine spun wool, called kurkwool, and silk to surround the design elements. So owning a Nain was like owning a Porsche. The qualities produced in Nain are 9 la, 6 la, 4 la, very rare is silk foundation or pure silk. The number tells how many threats of cotton are spun together to become one warp of the rug - the less the thinner the warp and the finer the rug. Usually the knotcount started at about 500.000 knots m² (7 x 7 knots per cm²).
In the early 1990`s dealers from Nain where not able to deliver enough rugs from Nain, and also the prices where rising constantly. So they where looking for other production areas that where able to produce the same product at a lower price in larger amounts. They started production in the province on Chorassan, an area in the very north east of Iran where labour is very cheap compared to the central iranian provinces. One center of production on Nain designed rugs is the city of Tabbas.
Tabbas rugs are cheaper and have regular than Kurkwool, and also have lower knotcount.
If you want to buy an
original Nain with 9 la we are talking 3500 - 5000 USD in your size.
Tabbas are generally no bad rugs, they are durable, just the chaeper version of Nain.
So a price of 1100$ is ok even if it is a Tabbas. Tabbas are usually sold with the description Nain, since most customers don`t know Tabbas but Nain (even some dealers). Count the knots on one cm², muliply it with 10000, then you have the exact knotcount. Let us know how much you came up with.
