There's something intriguing -- maybe even a little dangerous -- about the idea of buying an Oriental rug.
Perhaps you picture yourself like Ingrid Bergman in "Casablanca," bartering in some Middle Eastern open-air market. The smell of goat sizzling over an open fire, the calling of prayers from a nearby mosque, the crush of the crowd, the veiled women, the camels . . .
Oh, get over it.
Probably the closest most of us will get to intrigue is a meeting room at some hotel, where a guy with a fake accent will try to pass off a cheap, brand-new carpet as a "genuine Persian antique." The danger comes when you open your checkbook. If you don't know what you're buying, chances are you'll get taken to the cleaners.
Buying a handmade Oriental rug easily could be the biggest single investment you make for your home. After all, it's not every day that you plop down several thousand dollars for something you're going to walk on.
The bottom line is, buy what you like. But how do you know you're getting what you pay for?
You might get lucky. One woman who was in the market for an Oriental rug recently paid $50 for three old carpets at an estate sale. Not really knowing what she'd bought, she took them to a dealer to have them appraised. One of the rugs was worthless. But the other two were valued at about $3,000 each.
But, in most cases, getting knowledge is more effective. If you don't know Oriental rugs, find someone who can teach you, suggests Jon Levinson, vice president of Alex Cooper Oriental Rugs in Towson. In the rug trade, where "going out of business" sales are as common as flies on a camel's back, "It's very important to deal with reputable sources" who have a significant track record in the community, Mr. Levinson says.
It's also important to do your homework. Some people have made careers out of the study of Oriental carpets. But even if you don't know the difference between a Bakhtiari and a Bidjar, a few basic facts will help you get started.
Let's start with the real basics: How do you tell a machine-made rug from a handmade one? To the untrained eye, it's often difficult to distinguish between the two. While a machine-made rug can give you a lot of look for relatively little money, to true connoisseurs, it's like the difference between looking at a poster Monet's waterlilies and the real thing.
