Kinara Art Gallery: A feast of carpets

Susanna Tjokro, Contributor, Jakarta

"If you love your job, you will never work a day in your life", the old saying goes.

For some people who truly love what they do, that saying holds a lot of truth. Tahir Chaudry, the owner of Kinara Art Gallery, is among the lucky ones. Tahir loves his job and takes it seriously. What attracts him in the business is not merely the financial aspects of it, but also the chance to deal with the art he travels thousands of miles to find.

Kinara sells antique statues, old furniture and other works of art from countries, including Thailand, China, Iran, Pakistan and Indonesia, but its main business has always been antique carpets, rugs and runners.

The gallery offers handmade carpets only, no machine-made ones, and many of them are antiques with prices starting at US$200 an item. Tahir showed me an exquisite carpet, which appeared warm reddish when its threads were viewed from one direction and took on more silvery cast when viewed from another. Simply stunning.

The only difference between a rug and a carpet is size, rugs are small carpets -- anything larger than two meters-long is normally referred to as a carpet.

The size, age, country of origin, quality of the wools or silk, dyes and knotting, intricacy of design and condition are all important when one values an antique carpet. Collectible rugs should be handmade and the best colors are those made from natural vegetable and insect dyes.

Buying antique carpets is a long-term, profitable investment. Handmade products are disappearing, while the demand for handmade rugs and carpets has increased. Today, you can find carpets from Europe, including France and Britain as well as from Turkey, the Caucasus, Afghanistan, India, China and other Asian countries. However, it's widely known that the best-quality rugs and carpets are Persian, coming from what is present-day Iran.

Unique antique carpets can cost millions of dollars. A Louis XV Savonnerie carpet circa 1740-50 was sold for $4.406.000 in November 2000, while 16th Century A Tabriz Medallion carpet, from northwest Persia was sold for 1.596.500 pounds sterling in July 1999; both are just two examples of the exceptional prices rugs and carpets sold by Christie's auction house can fetch.

While some may think this is too high a price for anything you might put on your wall or floor, carpet collectors would say it depends on how deep your love for antique carpets is.

Finding a good, reputable dealer is a crucial thing. When you find one, you will be impressed with the depth of knowledge they show about all aspects of carpets.

A good dealer will tell you the real condition of a carpet; its winning points and its imperfections. Indeed, one should expect to see some imperfections in carpets and rugs made in countries influenced by Arabian culture. These intentional imperfections, sometimes called the "irregularity", comes from the carpet designer's belief that only God can create perfection -- it is not a creative sales pitch for faulty merchandise. However, most of these imperfections are tiny details in the pattern, such as a single flower of a color slightly different from all the rest, which can't be noticed easily by the naked eye.

"It takes a great deal of experience to accurately assess antique carpets and I'm still learning -- we can never say we know everything in life," Tahir said.

Tahir, an ethnic Indian Indonesian whose family is originally from Pakistan, is a third-generation carpet dealer. His family owns 12 Farah carpet stores in Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya and Bali.

But Kinara isn't wall-to-wall carpet. Antique furniture -- a beautiful 400-year-old teak table and statues of Buddha -- compliment the rugs along with paintings, mostly by Indonesian and Australian artists, including renowned antipodean David Boyd. Limited edition prints hand-signed by Boyd are priced at between $800 and $1,500.

Tahir says his business went well until the economic crisis struck in 1998 but is slowly picking up again.

To find his merchandise, Tahir, who speaks fluent Indonesian, Urdu, English, Persian and a bit of Arabic, travels frequently to small villages and remote areas in countries like Indonesia, China, Pakistan, India and Afghanistan.

"I love sharing my knowledge of antique carpets with customers. Interaction with people, either as a buyer or a seller, is the best and most fun part of my business. Each piece has a story to tell. Good communication is important in the transaction process and both sides can sometimes feel worn down by the whole process, as sometimes it may take a few days or even weeks.

"After all, buying antiques is a transaction that involves lots of money but as a buyer, when finally I get what I want, I feel satisfied. For me, buying is more fun than selling."

One of his unforgettable experiences, was when the late President of United Arab Emirates (UAE), Sheikh Zaid bin Sultan al-Nahayan, invited him to bring his carpets and rugs to his palace.

"It was a great honor to be invited to the palace," said Tahir who sold some of his merchandise there.

Sometimes he rolls down his rugs just to marvel at their beauty.

"I have to like the carpets and rugs that I buy," said Tahir.

Kinara Art Gallery Kemang Raya 78B Tel: 7194350 Fax: 7194360 Monday - Saturday: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. tahir@farahs.co.id http:farahs-carpet.com