News & Information

Written by David Castriota
Friday, 22 December 2006

Collectors are a special breed of rug enthusiast. While they are motivated fundamentally by a “passion for rugs” and the world that produces them, their interest tends to inordinately intense, knowledgeable, and idiosyncratic. There is no telling what particular set of concerns and objectives will motivate an individual collector, but every collector has such a unique motivation along with a huge store of knowledge accumulated over the years. Collectors literally see rugs differently from other people. They look at rugs creatively, through the lens of knowledge, in a way that allows them to see past problems of condition or damage in order to appreciate the artistic worth of a great piece. At times they are not motivated by the immediate impression that the rug may make, but rather by its uniqueness or its historical importance. In the latter regard, collectors depart substantially from the great majority of rug users and enthusiasts.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Written by David Castriota
Thursday, 14 December 2006

Some people buy a rug purely as a household furnishing. For them a rug is an integral piece of a larger puzzle, like a sofa, table, or a drapery. Others have what may be called a passion for rugs. They are rug enthusiasts, rug lovers. They like the very idea of rugs. They may be quite knowledgeable in terms of rug history or typology, or they may have a purely visual interest and response to the rug, a reaction that perceives the individual personality that all handmade rugs have, especially antique ones.

To a rug enthusiast, the rug is more like a painting. It is a focus of detailed attention. It should go with the accompanying décor, but it is not immediately subordinate to it. For this type of buyer there are various levels of concern and interest.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Written by David Castriota
Friday, 08 December 2006

One of the the more subjective aspects of judging a rug have to do with assessing its quality and its imperfections. When quality is assessed on the basis of the wool, dyes, and weaving technique, it is a fairly objective process. When the issue turns to drawing style, it becomes more of an issue of taste. The same is true with “imperfections.” Dropped knots, looseness or inconsistencies in tightness are technical imperfections. But are abrash - abrupt changes in color, sudden changes in design, or adjustments in proportion at the corners or the borders or ends of the field to be judged as imperfections, or as changes that are part of the deliberate intention of the weaver, and therefore part of her creative expression?

Some buyers may be put off by such qualities. They may prefer a workshop rug that is perfectly straight, with consistent color and design. But others will appreciate that the personality of the village weaver confronts us every time she inserts a willful twist and turn of color or pattern, or in her struggle to maintain straight proportions in a wool foundation, that that she is in a sense alive in the rug in all such variations or inconsistencies.

Popularity: 8% [?]