Cool! just received this in e-mail. "Rug Rag, a website based in New York (www.rugrag.com), is an organisation that shares this passion for authenticity. Owned and operated by Matthew and David Dilmaghani, the brothers went into business in 2007 to help bring more transparency to the industry and supply buyers with accurate information.
“Chinese weavers have made progress in creating weavings that closely replicate,” Matthew Dilmaghani says. “However, the types of scams that disappoint us are not necessarily the knock-off merchandise. Our main concern are the less reputable vendors who abuse internet consumers by leading them on with misinformation and prey on first-time buyers’ misconceptions.”
The website offers a variety of services to help these first-time buyers. A “Style Guide” gives background information for people looking to learn about the industry, while a “Rug Rag Forum” provides an interactive space in which buyers and sellers can discuss Persian carpets and post photographs of their investments. Another helpful feature of the site is the “Rug Estimator Pro”, which lets owners key in information about a rug – dimensions, origin, age and condition, for example – and in turn produces an estimate of its value."
