Persian Isfahan Rug, ca. 1945
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GUEST:
I have a cleaning service. I work for a doctor, and I have been working for him for over 15 years. He had his house up for sale, and moving in a condo, and he invited us in to pick out some pieces that we'd be interested in, and I said, "I want that." He said, "Nah, I don't think so." Then a week later, he called me and he said, "We'll let you have it for $1,000."
APPRAISER:
It's a little bit tricky for me to evaluate because it's under plexiglass, and I can't look at the back of the rug. And oftentimes, the back reveals a lot of clues about its age and its origin, but I'm really confident for a number of reasons, this is an Isfahan rug, which is a very finely woven rug from Iran. And the inscription is both in Farsi and in English underneath, signed by the workshop of Mehdi Dardashti, and it also has the city that it was woven in, which is Isfahan. I think the piece dates from the 1940 to 1950 era, which is very early for one of these. There was a revival of this style of weaving where they're depicting a scene that you would see in a 15th-century Persian miniature. One thing that's remarkable is this shade of green, the border. It's an outstanding color, and the wool, I believe, is Manchester wool, which is imported wool from England. It's woven on a silk foundation, which enabled them to weave a rug that probably has in the neighborhood of 600 knots per square inch. You just don't see pieces of this quality very often. There were a lot of these that were made in the '70s and '80s that don't match up to this.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
I would strongly encourage you to insure this for about $20,000.
GUEST:
(laughs) Really? Yes. Aw...
Appraisal Details
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