GUEST: My husband and I got a call from our neighbor who lived across the street one night and he said that he had a gentleman there that was going to sell him some rugs that he was looking at. He had picked out what he wanted, but that there was one in particular that he was very smitten with, and he didn't have a use for it and we should come take a look at it. And he knew that we had rugs, so we went across the street and we fell in love with this rug and we bought it, along with two other rugs.
APPRAISER: You say you have a little bit of a history with rug making?
GUEST: In my 20s, I was an amateur weaver and a rug maker, and so I know a little bit about rugs. I know just enough to know that the number of knots per square inch was amazing. The colors were amazing and it just really spoke to us.
APPRAISER: Well, this rug, it has roughly 500 knots per square inch. It was woven most likely in the 1980s. In 1979, there was the Iranian revolution, and the United States government placed an embargo on the importation of all oriental rugs and carpets from that country. It created a demand for an item that was no longer available, so other countries such as China started weaving rugs in Persian designs, something that up to that point really hadn't happened. And so this rug was woven in the Qum style, which is a certain type of Persian rug, and woven in the country of China.
GUEST: Really?
APPRAISER: Meticulously hand-crafted in a good size, roughly about eight by ten.
GUEST: And it is silk, right?
APPRAISER: It is silk, yeah. It's got a lot going for it. You have a very good eye for quality and for detail. How much did you pay for this?
GUEST: Well, all three rugs that we purchased were $15,000.
APPRAISER: Well, in today's marketplace, I believe this rug would sell for $17,500 in a retail shop.
GUEST: Okay. Wow.
APPRAISER: All right, so thank you so much for bringing it in.
GUEST: Thank you, really appreciate it.
