Another Auction
It wasn't exactly a whole leaf tobacco auction.
I saw a tiny notice of an auction in a tiny, local paper. There would be "bales" of Persian carpets that had been seized in 2009. I searched for other notices of the same auction, hoping for some clarification, but that one notice was it. It was held at a local VFW hall. So I drove over there this afternoon.
During my two tours of duty in Saudi Arabia, in the early 1980s, I often went to the rug markets, the souks. I spent a lot of time reading up on the intricacies of location of manufacture, quality of manufacture, typical motifs, etc. These are all made by hand in small villages across south Asia. I enjoy looking at them, and guessing their origin and value, even though I no longer purchase any.
This auction turned out to be small potatoes. That is, I had seen a greater number of hand-knotted rugs jammed into a single stall in a souk than what was on offer here today, but the quality of the rugs today was just spectacular. And there were many huge rugs (the kind that take decades to make) in the very finest quality.
I was more accustomed to seeing fine carpets spread out on the sand, in scorching sunlight. But these still looked mighty nice. Many of these were 20 to 70 years old, and showed absolutely no wear. There was one from Karabakh, Armenia, with the date, "1904" knotted into it. It still looked nearly new.
Iranian, Caucasian, Turkish. They were all represented. Hamedan, Kashan, Heriz, Sarouk, Isfahan, Bidjar, Kazak, Nain, Herati, in assorted sizes and shapes.
The finest hand-knotted rugs (often 400 knots of wool pile per inch) look just as vivid and crisp on the back side as the front. After 30 minutes of inspection time, the auction lasted only about 45 minutes. The Iranian rug expert who was conducting the auction was like listening to a TED Talk on the economics of tiny villages, many of which can no longer produce large rugs.
The audience was quite small. The final bids were shockingly low. Some of the rugs sold for prices similar to what I might have paid in the rug souks 36 years ago. Alas, I left empty handed, since I really can't use another rug. (I did carry some money with me, just in case.)
Bob
It wasn't exactly a whole leaf tobacco auction.
I saw a tiny notice of an auction in a tiny, local paper. There would be "bales" of Persian carpets that had been seized in 2009. I searched for other notices of the same auction, hoping for some clarification, but that one notice was it. It was held at a local VFW hall. So I drove over there this afternoon.
During my two tours of duty in Saudi Arabia, in the early 1980s, I often went to the rug markets, the souks. I spent a lot of time reading up on the intricacies of location of manufacture, quality of manufacture, typical motifs, etc. These are all made by hand in small villages across south Asia. I enjoy looking at them, and guessing their origin and value, even though I no longer purchase any.
This auction turned out to be small potatoes. That is, I had seen a greater number of hand-knotted rugs jammed into a single stall in a souk than what was on offer here today, but the quality of the rugs today was just spectacular. And there were many huge rugs (the kind that take decades to make) in the very finest quality.
I was more accustomed to seeing fine carpets spread out on the sand, in scorching sunlight. But these still looked mighty nice. Many of these were 20 to 70 years old, and showed absolutely no wear. There was one from Karabakh, Armenia, with the date, "1904" knotted into it. It still looked nearly new.
Iranian, Caucasian, Turkish. They were all represented. Hamedan, Kashan, Heriz, Sarouk, Isfahan, Bidjar, Kazak, Nain, Herati, in assorted sizes and shapes.
The finest hand-knotted rugs (often 400 knots of wool pile per inch) look just as vivid and crisp on the back side as the front. After 30 minutes of inspection time, the auction lasted only about 45 minutes. The Iranian rug expert who was conducting the auction was like listening to a TED Talk on the economics of tiny villages, many of which can no longer produce large rugs.
The audience was quite small. The final bids were shockingly low. Some of the rugs sold for prices similar to what I might have paid in the rug souks 36 years ago. Alas, I left empty handed, since I really can't use another rug. (I did carry some money with me, just in case.)
Bob
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