Customer Reviews

Oriental Rugs: A Buyer's Guide

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As said in the synopsis - this is a book on available rugs not ones gracing the walls of museums or showing up in the big auction houses for 30 000 bucks. As a rug dealer, I use his books as a bible (perhaps Quran would be more appropriate!) and they have never let me down. As I tell my customers... before you invest a 1000 dollars on a rug, invest 15 dollars to learn more about them. You will be amazed at how carpet dealers will drop their prices as soon as you show even a small amount of knowledge. Best series by far. Enjoy.

If you have recently been bitten by the Oriental Rug bug, here is a down to earth book for to help you through the complicated names of regions and styles. The author gives everything you need to know without overwhelming you with a subject and a trade hundreds of years old. Moreover, the pictures are a great visual aid for showing examples of rugs mentioned in a well written text. This book will make easier your understanding of the subject and get you off to a good start to an enjoyable pursuit.

If you are interested in buying a book to learn just the basics of Oriental Rugs in a short time span, this book is just fine. The content is good, and there are about 20 pages of glossy pictures showing different designs of rugs.
If your intention is to buy a book which will help you really understand the nuances of Oriental rugs, you need to look elsewhere. I gave the book an average rating, because that's what it is - not a great reference, but also not a bad value for the money. Just a decent book conveying about what you'd expect from a 100 page introductory text.

I found this book a useful text for beginners. It provides organized information without being overly complex and boring. One benefit of the book is that occasionally when the author makes reference to an item explained in detail elsewhere in the text, a page number is given so the reader can jump to the detailed description if necessary. It's the 1980's version of hyperlinks. The color plates are beautiful, but lack descriptions of the sizes of the rugs. Also lacking is the pronunciation guide; A basic guide exists, but falls short by lacking pronunciations for all but one or two words. I was also hoping to read a discussion of the varrying lengths of rug fringes, which this book did not discuss. A final benefit of the book is the last chapter on the major and minor weaving groups. These sections provide a good source of reference when one needs to get quick, basic information about a particular group.

I am a newcomer in the world of persian rugs and found this book very useful. The more you read the more you understand that there is an entire world to discover and the author introduces you in this nice exotic world. It is by no means a complete guide on the subject but it is a very good starting point to understand the basics of the subject. I would highly recommend this book before reading other, more massive and detailed books.

I've been looking for a great rug buyer's guide, working in the rug industry. It's hard to come across a good resource out there. I'd say that this is a good primer on rugs, if you want to make sure you're buying right. Saves you from the regret of making the wrong rug purchase, or the tediousness of having to deal with customer service departments of rug companies. Just like any big purchase, rug buying must be treated with the right amount of reverence. Great resource. Recommended.

This book was recommended to me by a respected dealer in Persian rugs as not only a good introduction to Persian rugs, but as a very good ongoing reference. I purchased 5 copies of the book for myself and friends. I am now down to only my own personal copy. I consider it an indispensible guide for anyone who wants to learn about Persian rugs, and to some extent, rugs from other regions. I have a number of books on Persian rugs, including some published in Iran pre-1979 and post-1979, as well as the excellent reference book by the Eilands. This one is indispensible and my friends who have it agree! Highly recommended if you can still get it.

This book has really helped me increase my knowledge and ability to recognize different kinds of rugs in a dealer's showroom. There are good color photographs, many diagrams about motifs and descriptions of features that rugs from various locales have. I keep going back to the book and re-reading things I didn't pick up before. It is definitely a buyers' guide.