Sarouk Fereghan Rug, ca. 1890
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GUEST:
There was an estate sale in my hometown about five or six years ago. I got in and looked at it and the price was something that I thought was a good buy and I just bought it.
APPRAISER:
And was there anything about this rug that distinguished it from the other items that you'd seen?
GUEST:
Well, I liked the small size and the soft, muted colors and with the blues and the maroons and so forth.
APPRAISER:
Okay, well, one of the best attributes of this carpet are the soft, muted colors. That's something that you generally would find with an older rug, which this is. This is a Sarouk-Fereghan rug, dates from around 1890, woven exclusively with vegetable dyes. As you notice, there are certain areas where you have certain gradations of color and that's what we refer to as abrash. Since different dye lots of wool were used in the construction of this rug, they may have been the same color at one point in time, but they've aged differently. If you notice over here you have this very small, light brown rosette and you can notice that there is a little bit more wear in this area than there is in the surrounding areas. That is an occurrence that we refer to as oxidation, and for a color such as brown they have to use a mordant to help the dye fix to the wool, and in this instance the mordant that they used is very caustic, so a brown area such as this will oxidize faster than the other areas around it so you have this... more or less this relief effect. Even though it wasn't intended to be that way that's how it's been over the years. The overall condition of this piece is generally good. Uh, you have a little bit of wear and tear here which will affect the value of it but a Sarouk-Fereghan carpet such as this coming from the late 19th century would be worth approximately $3,000 to $5,000. How much did you pay for it?
GUEST:
I paid $750.
APPRAISER:
Well, I think you did very well.
GUEST:
Well, that's great, that's great. Thanks for bringing the item in. Thank you.
Appraisal Details
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