Buying a Vintage Rug
The Djoharian Guide
What separates patina from damage, a hand-knotted rug from a copy, and a good buy from a disappointment. Notes from five decades in the trade.
A vintage rug has already lived a life before it reaches you. That is its appeal: colours that have softened in the sun, wool polished by decades of footsteps, small irregularities that show a person made it by hand. It is also why buying one needs a different eye than buying something new. Two rugs can look alike in a photograph and be worlds apart once you turn them over.
Since 1967 our family has bought rugs in the weaving regions and in the bazaar in Tehran where the business began. On request, every rug comes with our own certificate. This guide sets out what I check first.
Vintage, semi-antique, antique
These words are trade conventions, not legal categories, and dealers use them loosely. Roughly, this is how they are understood:
Woven in the second half of the 20th century. Often with soft wear and settled colours.
Older pieces, typically from the first half of the 20th century.
The threshold also used by customs authorities in several countries.
Age alone says little about quality. A well-woven rug from the 1970s can be the better choice than a tired antique. Ask how the age was determined, and expect a seller to say when it is an estimate.
Patina or damage?
Wear is part of a vintage rug. The question is whether it is even and stable, or whether the structure underneath is affected.
Even wear is fine
A low pile that has worn down evenly gives many vintage rugs their soft, almost velvety look. Where the knots are still there and the foundation is intact, the rug will last.
Abrash is not a flaw
Bands of slightly different shades running across the field are called abrash. They come from wool dyed in separate batches. In a hand-knotted rug they are normal, and many buyers look for them.
What to look out for
- Holes and bare warpsAreas where the pile is gone down to the foundation threads. They can be rewoven, but this affects the price you should pay.
- MothMoth damage often starts on the back and under furniture, where a rug lies undisturbed. Look for bald patches in a pattern and fine, sandy residue.
- Edges and fringesLoose sides and missing fringes are common and can be secured or renewed. Ask whether this has been done.
- RepairsGood repairs are a normal part of a rug's history. They should be named in the description, not hidden.
Two rugs can look alike in a photograph and be worlds apart once you turn them over.
Is it hand-knotted?
Turn the rug over. On a hand-knotted rug the pattern shows through clearly on the back, knot by knot, with small irregularities. The fringes are the ends of the warp threads running through the whole rug, not a strip sewn on afterwards.
A tufted rug has a fabric backing glued over the reverse, usually with a cloth cover. A machine-made rug has a perfectly regular back and fringes that are attached. Neither is wrong, but neither should be sold as hand-knotted.
Knot density is given in knots per square inch (kpsi) or per square metre. It says something about fineness, but not everything: a coarse village rug can be the more beautiful piece.
Washed, overdyed, shaved
Many vintage rugs on the market today have been treated to suit current interiors. That is legitimate as long as it is declared.
Overdyed
The whole rug is dyed again in a strong single colour, often after the old colours have been stripped. The original pattern stays faintly visible underneath.
Washed out and shaved
Colours are lightened and the pile is cut down to create a faded, worn look. Done carefully, this gives a calm surface. Done harshly, it weakens the wool.
Choosing the size
Most rugs bought online are too small. A rug should anchor the furniture, not float in front of it. These three rules of thumb work in most rooms:
Measure the room and mark the outline with tape before you buy. Our rugs by size are grouped from small formats up to palatial pieces for large rooms.
Living with it
A rug that has lasted fifty years will last much longer with simple care. Vacuum regularly without a rotating brush, and turn the rug once a year so it wears and fades evenly. We recommend a rug underlay.
Washing should only ever be done by hand, by specialists. Our rug cleaning and restoration workshop in Lohr am Main looks after rugs from Würzburg, Aschaffenburg and the Main-Spessart region.
A vintage rug does not need to be produced new. It stays in use instead of being replaced.
Buying online
You cannot touch a rug through a screen, so a good seller has to do that for you. Before you buy, ask for:
- Photos of the backPlus close-ups of any wear, repairs and the edges.
- Exact dimensionsMeasured, not rounded, in cm and ft.
- A clear condition noteWhat has been repaired, washed or treated, and when.
- Origin and ageAnd how they were determined.
If a question is not answered in the listing, ask us. We would rather explain a detail before the sale than after it.
A short glossary
More terms in our Rugwiki.
- Abrash
- Variations of shade within one colour, caused by separate dye batches.
- Warp
- The lengthwise threads the knots are tied around. Their ends form the fringes.
- Weft
- The crosswise threads that lock each row of knots in place.
- Pile
- The surface formed by the cut ends of the knots.
- kpsi
- Knots per square inch, a measure of how finely a rug is knotted.
- Kilim
- A flatweave without pile, with the pattern woven into the weft.
Every piece in our vintage collection has been checked by hand, measured and described as it is.
— Karl-Heinz Ahmad Djoharian
