Rug buying in Brussels

What we buy

The division is simple and it rules things out: we buy what is hand-knotted, knot by knot on a loom. A machine-made rug comes out of a machine; a tufted one is punched into a backing cloth and then glued. Neither of them has collectors' value, and no specialist buyer takes them.

Within our field: Persians (Tabriz, Kashan, Heriz, Qom, Bidjar, Baluch), Anatolians, Caucasians, Afghans with guls, silk rugs, flat-woven kilims and whole estate lots. A Berber with a long pile is a decorative piece: we will look at it, with no promise in advance.

How a purchase works

Everything starts with three photographs: the front, the back, and a close-up of the knotting taken from a few centimetres away. The back is the key part of the file: it is where the design comes out sharp on a hand-knotted rug, where the knots can be counted and where the type of knot can be read. Add the exact dimensions in centimetres, measured excluding the fringes.

You receive a costed answer within 48 working hours. It is a range, subject to physical examination: a photograph shows neither the suppleness of the foundation, nor an old dye bleed, nor the smell of a cellar. If it suits you, we come out and confirm or adjust it in front of you.

Collection is free. A rolled living-room rug is heavy and turns badly in a stairwell: that is our job, not yours.

The criteria that make the price, published in plain terms

A seller who does not know the grid is right to be wary. Here is ours. Hand-knotted or machine-made: first sort, no appeal. Knot density: from 150,000 knots per square metre the quality is good, above 500,000 it is superior, and exceptional silks go up to 1,000,000. The Persian scale counts in raj: six knots per linear centimetre. Type of knot: the asymmetric senneh allows a finer design, the symmetric ghiordes gives a harder-wearing pile, and the jofti, knotted over two warp threads at once, gives away an economy production.

Origin: the Persian remains the benchmark of the market, and the Indo-Pakistani productions that copy its designs are worth markedly less. We say so before making an offer. Age: before 1890 the value is certain and substantial, between 1890 and 1950 it varies, after 1950 it is mainly decorative. The hundred-year threshold moves the piece into the antique category. Material: pure silk at the top, then kork wool, cotton for the warp and the weft.

Dyes: the vegetable dyes (madder, indigo, saffron, oak gall, cochineal) come before the aniline dyes, which appeared in Turkey around 1882. Abrash, that variation in shade in horizontal bands caused by a change of dye bath, is their signature: proof of age, not a fault, and it raises the offer. Condition: light wear is normal on an old piece, but a pile worn down to the weft, multiple holes or a general dye bleed weigh heavily. Dimensions: more material and more work push the price up, but very large formats are hard to place today.

Payment

You are paid on the day of collection. Cash up to €3,000, instant transfer or banker's draft above that, the same day. This is not a house preference: in Belgium, no cash payment may exceed €3,000, in either direction (article 67 of the Act of 18 September 2017 on the prevention of money laundering). A buyer who offers you ten thousand euros in notes is offering you an offence.

Every purchase gives rise to a detailed receipt: declared origin, dimensions, condition observed, price paid. It is your record, and it is ours too.

Why us rather than an auction house

An auction house does not buy your rug: it puts it up for sale. You have to take it there, wait for the sale, accept the low estimate as the reserve price, pay fees on whatever sells, and take back whatever does not.

We buy. The price is set before the collection, it depends on no bidding, and no fee is deducted. In return, and we own up to it: our offer sits below the estimated market value. The difference covers the washing, any restoration, the storage and the time to resell, which is sometimes counted in years. A buyer who claims to pay the market price either resells at a loss or does not pay what he announces.