Buying Antique Rugs Dream Weavers

With their intricate patterns, painstaking production and compelling history, antique rugs are capable of provoking high passion, and they make a striking focal point in the home

- EMMA LONGSTAFF

When he was a 16-year-old schoolboy, James Cohen fell in love at first sight. The focus of his affections was an antique rug. ‘The moment I saw it, it took my breath away. I wanted it more than I’d wanted anything in my short life.’

James – now a dealer in antique textiles – is not alone in feeling passionately about rugs. ‘Carpet-making is one of the oldest art forms in existence,’ believes Louise Broadhurst, Head of Oriental Rugs & Carpets at the auction house Christie’s. ‘The same techniques have been used for millennia.’

Although the weavers’ names have been lost, experts develop an encyclopedic knowledge of the techniques, colours and patterns that help situate each example in a particular time and place. And there’s no hard and fast rule, but a carpet tends to be classed as a room-sized floor covering, whereas a rug is smaller, usually under nine feet.

‘Every single one tells a story,’ Louise continues. ‘But it has two sides. We learn a lot from the design and colours on the front, but the genetic fingerprint is on the back. That’s where we see how it’s really made – the materials used for the warp and weft, the quality and style of the knotting. All these things give clues about its true identity.’

Most antique rugs and carpets were made in the Oriental world, a vast area extending from North Africa, Turkey, the Caucasus, modern-day Iran, Central Asia and Afghanistan, to Pakistan, India and China. The carpetmaking tradition spread along the so-called Silk Road, an ancient trade route stretching across Asia and into Europe.