Oriental Rug 101

Persian Oriental Rugs

Persian rugs have a reputation with the general public to be the best and are widely considered to be the benchmark for judging rugs from other countries. Their traditional and iconic designs are copied throughout the Orient.

Categories of Rugs – Oriental Rug 101

A good schematic for understanding the disciplines that historically produced hand woven Oriental rugs is City, Village and Tribal. City and Village Oriental Rugs are often also described as Formal Floral and Informal Floral.

Antique Oriental Rugs & Antique Look Rugs

I had been employed in the Oriental rug trade since 1959 and when I first started my own business in 1966 it was buying and selling old and antique Oriental rugs.  The previous two years had been spent working for Mustapha Avigdor born in 1879, one of the luminaries of the Boston Oriental rug trade.  […]

Geometric Tribal & Village Oriental Rugs

Scattered throughout the rug producing countries of the Middle East are numerous tribal groups of various ethnic origins, the remnants of various historic migrations or incursions.  For example, The “TURKS” of the Republic of Turkey are comprised of numerous tribal groups such as the AK KOYUNLU, KARAKOYUNLU and YURUKS etc.  The same is true of […]

Traditional Bidjar Oriental Rugs

Authentic BIDJARS are woven in Persian Kurdistan, a mountainous undeveloped province of IRAN inhabited largely by KURDS of various tribal groups.   Living a rural lifestyle in a remote area they have had little communication with the central government.  The fact that they speak a different language and are devout practitioners of the SUNNI branch of […]

International Politics and the Afghan Oriental Rug Trade

A recent article in the Washington post titled “US hopes to revive Afghan rug trade” by Glenn Kessler outlined the involvement of the Pentagon with the Afghan Oriental rug trade. Afghanistan is a nation with some 1 million people involved in a cottage industry of weavers who work mostly in their homes hand knotting Oriental […]

Advise Me Mr. Grillo About Vacuum Cleaning My Oriental Rug

Direct contact soils like sand and clay and other abrasive solids get tracked into the home on peoples’ shoes and sneakers. These “direct contact” soils are very abrasive and cut at the fibers of your rug, wearing away at them to reduce the rugs’ life. By giving your rugs a thorough vacuuming about once a […]

Advise Me Mr. Grillo, How Can I Tell if My Oriental Rug Needs Cleaning?

Because Oriental rugs don’t always show soil, people often neglect cleaning. There are three ways I can recommend testing your Oriental rugs to see if it’s time for cleaning: Move a piece of furniture covering your rug and compare that section with the rest of the rug. If the colors are not as vibrant, it’s […]