GUEST: It comes from my family. It could go a long way back. I had a sea captain in the family probably about four generations back or more, I wouldn't be surprised sometime after the 1700s, 1800s. He was a clipper ship captain, and we think he brought it over, and it got into the hands of my great-uncle.
APPRAISER: And how long have you had it?
GUEST: I remember on my mother and father's floor, they had it on the floor. It had to be 80 years ago. We've had it a long time.
APPRAISER: Well, it's a very nice old rug. I would date it to about 1910. So your parents might have gotten it when they were fairly young.
GUEST: Yeah, I bet they did.
APPRAISER: Maybe even as a wedding gift. It's an antique Persian rug called a Fereghan Sarouk, and it's a particularly fine rug, very well woven. It's about four-and-a-half by six-and-a-half. They actually have a name for this size, which is called Dozar. And one of the things that's unusual is the signature that it has in the top border. And I had the signature translated, and it's "Order of Tavashkian," which was a wealthy Iranian family. So it's always very nice to have a signature like that. One of the things that's interesting about this rug is the color of the background. You'll notice that it's a very deep rose or burgundy color. That's actually not the original color. When these rugs were made originally, they were a lighter sort of salmony pink color, and the taste for decorating in the early 20th century was for much deeper colors, so they actually went to the trouble of re-dying every area of this rug which was red.
GUEST: Is that right?
APPRAISER: Now, what's unusual is that that was usually done to rugs of a later vintage, like 1920s, 1930s. It's unusual for us to see that done to a rug from close to 1900. Have you had it on your floor since you've owned it?
GUEST: No, it's been rolled up in a dark closet.
APPRAISER: That might explain why it's in such good condition. Usually when we see these rugs, they're quite worn.
GUEST: Well, it was on my father and mother's floor, and when I got back from the war, I said, "You know, that's too nice a rug to have on the floor."
APPRAISER: Well, I would estimate that in today's retail market, it would sell for around $6,000.
GUEST: I guess that, uh, doesn't surprise me. I think having something that beautiful should be worth quite a bit of money.
APPRAISER: It would have been a more desirable rug had it not been re-dyed, and I would say that the value would be closer to $10,000 had that re-dying process not taken place.
