Vintage Rugs

Each piece is individually made and won't be restocked.

“Vintage” gets used loosely in this market, so here's what it means on this site. In the trade, vintage generally means roughly 20 to 80 years old, with real patina and wear — not a fixed legal definition, just a working convention I hold myself to. “Antique” is a higher bar, 100 years plus by standard trade usage, and I don't reach for that word unless I have real reason to believe it.

Age alone doesn't get a rug into this collection. I check the wool first — springy and resilient means it's still doing its job; flat and lifeless is a problem no amount of patina fixes. I check the selvedges for fraying, the pile for bald patches worn to the foundation, the back for loose or irregular knot rows. A rug that lies flat with no waves or buckling has held its structure. One that doesn't, hasn't — no matter how good the story behind it is.

Tonal variation in the field colour — abrash, from batch-to-batch differences in hand-dyed wool — isn't a flaw here. It's a sign the dye was mixed by hand, not machine-matched, and it's one of the things that tells an old piece from a new one. Repairs happen to old rugs, and when one has been repaired, I say so and where. A well-done repair at the edge isn't a dealbreaker. An undisclosed one is the kind of thing that ends a relationship with a buyer, so I don't do it.

Every piece here passed that check. What didn't, isn't listed.