What Makes a Handmade Rug Defective?

by msmmumbles

When is an Oriental rug or a Persian carpet considered to be defective? An entire book can be written on the subject, and since we are talking about handmade rugs, most people do not expect them to be flawless. Some even believe that weavers make minor mistakes intentionally to stress the fact that only God can be without imperfections.  Although there is no set of rules indicating a flaw in an area rug, some general considerations will be briefly mentioned here.

Overall Frame: A hand knotted rug is expected to be as straight as humanely possible in all 4 sides. It is also expected from a rug to have borders of relatively the same width. The pattern of the border needs to correspond to that of the field; in other words, the middle point of the border pattern should be parallel to the middle point of the pattern of the field. This is not always true in nomadic rugs with geometric designs.

Symmetrical Points: Except in some rare patterns, handmade rugs use highly symmetrical patterns. It is logical to expect that such rules of symmetry have been followed by the weaver. Minor differences, for example in the exact size of two symmetrical flowers, or the angle of a geometric line, are easier to ignore if the rug has 100 knots per square inch. Of course, when it comes to a piece with 400 knots per square inch, such imperfections become harder to overlook

Abrash: The term “abrash” refers to different shades of the same color in a rug, and usually affects only the field but can sometimes extend to the colors of the border as well. Due to limited resources in villages, the wool is usually dyed in small batches, and the amount of different dyes is measured by hand. As a result, it is possible that when the weaver runs out of wool and needs additional material, the new wool will be slightly lighter or darker. This is not at all considered as a flaw in the rug. However, for a high quality rug with chemical dyes and produced professionally, very large amounts of wool can be dyed at one time, and such an “abrash” will be a minus point for the rug.

Repairs: If a rug has been repaired, no matter how professionally, then it is not a piece in perfect condition. Here again, it is understandable that an antique piece will have a few spots of low pile or minor repairs. However, such problems in a relatively new rug will adversely affect the value. Repairing a handmade rug is an art by itself, and if the original work can be imitated closely, the result will be an expert repair job, thus affecting the value in a much less degree.

Inconsistent Weave: You should remember that most hand knotted rugs are produced in villages and in the private home of the weavers, who may become ill, take on a temporary job at a farm, take time off to attend to kids, or many other reasons. In such cases, another member of the family or a relative is likely to take over the task of weaving. The result, almost always, is inconsistencies in the weave which will be easy to spot by looking at the back side of the rug. Again, higher quality rugs should not show such irregularities.

Almost all handmade rugs are unique, and minor imperfections in their overall condition are to be tolerated. Often, owners of these pieces of art get so attached to them that they will have the same piece restored over and over again and keep enjoying their old rug. Such rugs may not fetch a high value in the market, but they are quite valuable for their owners. As a general rule, the higher the quality of a rug is, the harder it becomes to overlook its imperfections.