3 Responses for "Has anyone ever bought an oriental rug online?"

1. *wish!* January 24th, 2010 at 6:33 am 1

   No, but I’d like to provide you with this piece of trivia:

   Persian rugs are usually made with an intentional flaw in their design. This mistake is purposefully made in order not to offend God/The Supreme Being, because they believe that only He should be able to make perfect things. So if you buy a Persian rug and there’s a mistake in it, don’t try to return it, because almost any authentic Persian rug you buy will have one.

2. Deema January 24th, 2010 at 4:22 pm 2

   Hahaha!
   the previous answerer made me laugh!
   I wonder where he came up with this myth… My Persian friends are almost offended!!!

3. Rajeev A January 24th, 2010 at 9:16 pm 3

   Hi,

   I am deviating from your question, but I could not resist adding my comments.

   I am an Oriental Rug Manufacturer from Agra and read the answer below that all Authentic Persian Rugs have some minor/major defects in them which are intentional.

   I would agree and disagree to the above. I agree that ALL authentic rugs have defects in them but mostly they are not intentional. Rug making is a very slow & tedious process, with centuries old methods being followed. A rug of size 8′ x 10′ has about a 1 million knots in it with each knot being knotted by hand. It takes upto 6 months for a decent knot count 8 x 10 to be made. Now in a period of six months, the shade of wool that has been used in the begining, if required again , may differ from the shade being used at the end as they being from different dye lots. This may cause a so-called defect. After every row of knots , the weavers that are working on the piece , beat the piece with a comb type instrument called ‘Panja’ . When 4/5 people beat the knots simultaneouly, its obvious that all will beat with different amounts of pressure. As a result after some rows of knots, the piece will appear to be tapering & crooked and will seem to be a defect.

   Also, most of the rugs are first designed on paper in graphs and then they are exactly replicated on the looms. A flower in the graph may be 20 knots wide and 20 knots long. But weavers may misread it to be 21 knots wide and 19 knots long at the start and when it is repeated they can easily make it reverse.

   All of the above are but examples of why no Authentic Oriental rug can be without defects.

   And yes, buying online makes sense. You can save money. You can also buy directly from any rug making countries , or order a custom rug at great prices.