GUEST: I was at a yard sale for a local farm nonprofit. It was lying out in one of their fields. I liked the look of it and decided to buy it.
APPRAISER: Well, the rug you brought in is a soumak rug, and soumak refers to the stitch of it. The soumak weave started showing up in the 17th century in the Caucasus mountain. This example probably dates from around 1960. It's got a silk pile and it's woven on a cotton foundation. And I would attribute it to Iran, because many of the rugs woven in Southern Iran, Shiraz rugs, tend to have two or three geometric medallions similar to these, with lots of small birds and chickens and other figures around them. And how much did you pay for this?
GUEST: Five dollars.
APPRAISER: The retail value for it would be about $2,000.
GUEST: Wow.
APPRAISER: So I think you made a great investment by it.
GUEST: Wow, mm-hmm. That's amazing.
APPRAISER: Thank you so much for bringing it in.
GUEST: Okay.
