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| Passion Investments: Antiques |
Masterpieces Underfoot
Debra Ryono
09/01/2004
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According to legend, the mighty King Solomon owned a green silk flying carpet
large enough to hold his throne and coterie. While none of today’s Oriental rug
collectors, merchants or experts claim to have encountered a carpet with magical
powers, they have found that finely made antique rugs can be enchanting
investments.
 | | THIS 19TH-century Sultanabad carpet, created in the western area of Persia, is
unusual for its color hues. |
In the world of rugs, there are two types of buyers: The first
purchases rugs to complete a decor. The second considers them investments in
fine art. Jon is a collector of the latter sort, who asked us not to use his
full name. His love affair with rugs began during his years as a medical student
in Jerusalem, where he encountered them during a visit to the Modern Museum of
Islamic Art. Since then, Jon has invested $3 million in a collection of nearly
150 carpets, many of which bedeck the floors and walls of his California home.
He swaps out rugs from his warehouse from time to time, as their appeal to him
ebbs and flows.
The rugs inspire his wife, who is an artist, and inform the
sensibilities of their two young children. “It’s wonderful art for children,” he
explains. “The rugs are the highest art form on the planet. If you take a very
great painting, there are still a few thousand people who could do a knockoff,
and only people with skill can tell the difference,” Jon says. “But a rug you
can’t copy. It’s like a Stradivarius violin.”
Jon is clearly not alone in his
enthusiasm. Jan David Winitz, founder and president of Claremont Rug in Oakland
and Berkeley, Calif., and an avid collector himself, boasts a clientele that
includes approximately 45 aficionados who have spent between $1.2 million and
$7.5 million each on Oriental carpets. “We have about 350 rugs in our vault that
people have purchased for investment purposes and left there to appreciate,” he
says. The individual prices vary from $40,000 to $250,000. “In a 20-year
period—with all economic cycles—a rare antique rug can bring in 8 to 12 percent
per year,” Winitz notes. “As far as good antique rugs—not rare—appreciation is 5
to 8 percent per year for a quality rug that is 100 years old or more.”
 |  | | TOP: A 19th-century Serapi was made in the northwestern area of Persia. Bottom: The
Caucasian Lori Pambak Kazak is from the private collection of Jan David
Winitz. (Photographs courtesy Claremont Rug Company.) |
Woven History
When classifying rugs, the broad term “Oriental” refers to
those made in a region stretching from present-day Iran to western China, and
south into India. The Persian rug, made in what is modern-day Iran and the best
known of the Orientals, proffers heavily embellished and deeply colored designs.
A Caucasian rug (woven by the inhabitants of the Caucasus Mountain region), by
contrast, appears coarser, with geometric patterns. “In Persia the eye was for
silky and soft, ostentatious and a reflection of success,” explains Raymond
Benardout, a Los Angeles-based dealer who has traded in rugs for nearly half a
century. “Entertaining was a major part of social life, and a carpet reflected
its owner’s success.”
Experts refer to pieces larger than 35 square feet as
carpets; smaller sections are rugs. The best examples can take years of
hand-racking work to complete; a family might labor for 10 years on a single
large carpet. The coarser rugs have about 80 knots per square inch, while the
most intricate Oriental rugs, made for the Mughal rulers of India in the 16th
and 17th centuries, are comprised of more than 2,000 knots per inch. Patterns
and colors vary by region, and even by tribe or town. Typically, an artist
fashioned the design, which workers then labored to bring to
fruition.
Although rugs produced in a particular region may be similar in
appearance, each has its own idiosyncracies—notably, in design or colors. Even
within a particular rug, colors may vary slightly from one line of knots to the
next. This variation, or abrash, is a natural result of the dyeing process. Wool
at the top of the lot may have dried more quickly than wool at the bottom.
Abrash is perfectly normal and acceptable. “The saying is that only Allah is
perfect,” muses Benardout.
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