Free, and useful against any seller
How to check a rug before you pay. Including ours.
A short guide, mostly photographs, that shows you how to verify what a seller tells you. It works in our shop, in any other shop, and on any listing online.
Why this guide exists
Four things that go wrong when you buy a rug
You overpay and never find out.
In most of the trade the price depends on who is asking. There is no list, so there is nothing to check.
You are told it is hand-knotted and it is not.
The difference is visible from the back of the rug in about ten seconds. Most listings do not show the back.
The size is wrong.
Handmade rugs are rarely true rectangles. A rug that measures 240 cm at one end can measure 233 cm at the other. Rooms do not forgive that.
It gets to your country and there is a bill.
Duty, VAT and clearance fees on a rug can be substantial, and they are often not mentioned until the courier calls.
All four are avoidable. They are avoidable with a camera, a tape measure and a policy.
What is inside
Nine short sections
The back of the rugFour side-by-side comparisons. Why the pattern reads clearly from the back on a hand-knotted rug and blurred on a machine-made one.
The fringeOn a hand-knotted rug the fringe is the foundation itself. On most machine-made rugs it is sewn on afterwards.
What listing photographs hideThe four photographs to insist on before paying, with a paragraph you can copy and send to any seller.
The four questions that get a straight answerEach with the answer to expect, and the answer that should give pause.
What can honestly be known about an old rugWhat is determinable, what needs laboratory analysis, and what "circa 1920" usually means.
Getting the size rightFive common room layouts with the size each actually needs, and a printable measuring checklist.
What it should cost, roughlyHonest bands by size and quality, what drives price, and what does not.
Shipping from TurkeyWhat to expect in each major market, and the two questions to ask a seller before paying.
A checklist you can carryA tear-off list designed to be taken into any shop. Including a competitor's.
Get the guide
We will email it to you as a PDF
The guide is being finished now. Leave your email and it arrives as soon as it is ready. One tick gets you the guide and nothing further. The second tick is optional.
A second offer, and it is free too
Found a rug somewhere else?
Send us the photographs and we will tell you what we can see in them, what we cannot, and what we would ask the seller before paying. Even if the answer is that theirs is the better buy.
Send Photos on WhatsApp