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Written by admin
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Tuesday, 02 January 2007 |
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The first thing to be considered when shopping for Oriental rugs is what, exactly, constitutes an Oriental Rug in the first place. The best Oriental rugs are real Oriental rugs, and real Oriental rugs must satisfy a specific set of requirements. First, Oriental rugs must be hand made. If a rug is machine-made, it is not an Oriental rug. Keep in mind also that just because a rug is handmade, it’s still not necessarily a genuine Oriental rug. Handmade rugs in America, for instance, are made by the Native Americans and are called “Navajo rugs” or “American Indian rugs,” and use a different method in production than do Oriental rugs.
This brings up another one of the features of true Oriental rugs – the fact, obviously, that they are made in the Orient. In this case, the Orient is a fairly loosely defined term: generally, real Oriental rugs are made throughout northern Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Asia. Styles of rugs differ from place to place: you can generally research the differences before you begin shopping by getting online and comparing pictures. One of the main details of Oriental rugs involves the way they are weaved. Some handmade Asian rugs, like the tufted rugs made in parts of China and India, look almost identical to Oriental rugs but lack the primary method of weaving: the individual hand-tied knots that are characteristic of the rugs. This knotting is what makes Oriental rugs so expensive and durable. While a tufted rug looks like an Oriental rug, it’s only about half as valuable and depreciates in value much faster.
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