Its been a while since we dealt in Nain rugs, although from what I can tell you they are among the more technical weavings made today.
I agree with RugPro, this rug is probably a Nain. It is wool pile, some sort of silk or artificial silk highlights with cotton foundation . I guess you would call this rug a Shishla given the information above. I have to say, the rug appears to be very nice but does have a stretched design from one side to the other?
Take the rug and fold it in half to see if the design lands in the middle. Do this both vertically and horizontally. An off center design and or siginficantly wider at one end than the other carpet will be lower in value.
Try here for testing the fibers for silk
http://rugrag.com/post/Fibers.aspx
You may have to remove a knot
http://rugrag.com/post/H...do-I-remove-a-Knot.aspx
Click here to see Irregular rugs:
http://rugrag.com/post/I...Corners-not-Square.aspx
For others interested further information on how to assess their Nain's, the best way to understand the technical: Take one single fringe in an inconspicuous area and dissect it. There single strand of fringe (continuation of the warp) should be wrapped with several other individual staples of cotton. Count first how many main strands the fringe breaks into. Then, of each of those strands, count how many additional stands comprise each of the main strands
To quote Mr. Barry O’Connell of
http://www.SpongoBongo.com,
“If one were to take a single strand of the fringe and pull it apart(unravel) one would find either two or three threads in the one strand of fringe.
Continuing, if you break down(unravel) the three threads it would break down to three additional threads (3x3=9) The Farsi word for 9 is Nola (or nohola) thus a nine thread rug,
If the 3 strands broke down into 2 strands each (3x2=6) it is asix thread rug or shisla (or shishla).
If on the other hand you only start with 2 threads and you break each of these down and find they unravel into 2 threads each(2x2=4) you have a charla (or sharla). Clearly a charla will be a finer warp and thus allow a higher knot count than a nola or a shisla. So charla are the finest Nains, nola are middle grade, and the lowest grade are shisla.”
The information above was souced from
http://www.spongobongo.com/em/em9780.htm