They might be oriental but they may not be Persian
Christiani Tumelap, Contributor, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
JAKARTA (JP): Are you sure that the beautiful flowery-designed carpet you've just bought is the real oriental carpet you've been looking for?
It is possible that you're among the many people who have taken home fake oriental carpets because they didn't really know what they've bought.
"People think that carpets with a typical floral or medallion design are all oriental," said oriental carpet trader Ahmad Mahmoudian.
The oriental carpets are those produced by people in Asian countries, especially Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India and China. They are knotted strictly by hand, not by machine.
He said of the oriental carpets available on the market, those from Iran, known as Persian carpets, are the most popular and in high demand.
The typical Persian floral and medallion designs, in fact, originated from Iran, he said.
Ahmad, who is of Iranian descent, has been in the oriental carpet business for twenty years here and abroad. He said carpetmakers outside Iran could produce a fine copy of the Persian designs because some of them might have lived in Iran.
It's not easy to distinguish a handmade Persian carpet from, for example, those made in Pakistan or Iraq because they have the same designs and colors.
"But if you take a closer look, and feel it, you'll find that the workmanship of the Persian carpet clearly exceeds the others. Persian carpets also have a far richer color scheme," said Ahmad, whose store is in the Fatmawati area of South Jakarta and sells only Iranian-made carpets.
Another major oriental carpet trader, Chaudhry Ayub, conceded that Persian carpets were the best oriental carpet to buy.
"Carpetmakers from other countries produce carpets with designs similar to the typical Persian design, especially the ardebil, dome and parsley boteh patterns, because they know that the market loves Persian carpets," said Chaudhry, who runs his store on Jl. Panglima Polim.
Chaudhry said Pakistan, China and India, especially Kashmir, had their own original designs. Pakistan, for example, has the popular "tree of life" designed carpet, which is mostly dominated by blue, beige or rustic colors and produced mainly in the city of Lahore, he said.
While genuine Chinese carpets usually highlight the image of dragons in their weavings, he said. The original designs of the Chinese carpets come in red, blue or pastel-dominated colors and are mostly made of silk or wool.
But not many of these carpets can be found on the market because many carpetmakers in China produce the Persian-looking pieces to better suit market demand, Chaudhry said.
"Other countries may produce carpets with similar designs and patterns, but the real Persian carpets made in Iran still outshine them due to the excellent workmanship of Iran's carpetmakers," he added.
In order to avoid spending a large amount of money on a fake oriental carpet, here are some shopping tips to take with you when you go shopping:
* Oriental carpets are hand-knotted weavings produced primarily in Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkey, India or China. Beware of tufted carpets from China: They are not in the same category because they use hand-operated tools.
* Oriental carpets are usually named after the area where they are produced. Persian carpets are divided into two types, city and tribal. The most famous city product comes from an area called Tabriz, and the finest tribal carpets come from Bijar village.
* The city carpets mostly have floral or medallion designs, while the tribal ones use more geometrical patterns. The city carpets are usually more expensive because they use silk and more long- lasting chemical ingredients in the coloring, while tribal carpets usually use vegetable or fruit-based dyes.
* The real oriental carpets are not sewn up on the back and do not have canvas glued on the back either. Look for a fringe on the end of the warp strings that run from one end of the carpet to the other.
* Real oriental carpets from any of the countries mentioned above may be made of 100 percent wool, wool on cotton, silk, or silk on cotton. No genuine oriental carpet is made of nylon, polypropylene, synthetic fiber, acrylic or polyester.
* To distinguish a real oriental carpet from the rest you should lay it side-by-side with other look-alike carpets. The real one should reflect a sheer and rich shade of colors. A high quality Persian carpet will have different shades of colors if you're looking at it from different angles.
* Touch the carpets and walk on them. A real Persian carpet should give you the softest, most luxurious feel to your hands and feet.
* Check the density of the tufts. The denser, the better. Check also the winding of the yarn. The tighter the twist, the better its durability.
* Just to give you a bearing on the price, a 2 x 3 meter Persian carpet of the famous handmade Tabriz design is about Rp 10 million (US$1,000), while a Persian Nain-designed carpet sells for about Rp 500,000.