Oriental Rugs: A Buyer's Guide

Oriental Rugs, by Lee Allane, is a companion book to Chinese Rugs, which I bought a few years ago. The book is listed as a buyer's guide, but my purpose in reading this book was to learn about how these rugs are made, their cultural and geographical background and also to enjoy the excellent full-color photos. Oriental Rugs fulfills all those needs.

The craftsmanship and beauty of Near Eastern and Oriental carpets is undeniable, but buying them can be a bit daunting. This book is a great resource and introduction to the variety of styles and patterns of these functional works of art. For the absolute novice, the first chapters detail what an oriental rug is and how they are made. Those more familar will want to skip this and get to the meat of the book, detailing care and design.The 49 full-color pictures provide a reference to the patterns, sizes and styles of the various carpets as well as abundant information regarding their place of origin and some history of how and by whom they were made. I found this to be the most useful and fascinating part of the book. The author provides other information such as price range and resale value - given the date of publication (my copy is from the late 1980s) and the normal changes in market and demand, this was less useful in its specifics, but a helpful guide in terms of relative price between styles and origin.

This book was recommended to me by a respected dealer in Persian rugs as not only a good introduction to Persian rugs, but as a very good ongoing reference. I purchased 5 copies of the book for myself and friends. I am now down to only my own personal copy. I consider it an indispensible guide for anyone who wants to learn about Persian rugs, and to some extent, rugs from other regions. I have a number of books on Persian rugs, including some published in Iran pre-1979 and post-1979, as well as the excellent reference book by the Eilands. This one is indispensible and my friends who have it agree! Highly recommended if you can still get it.

As an owner of a small Persian rug shop, ShopPersianRugs, I highly recommend this great read. This book is for anyone fascinated with handmade rugs, their origin and how to find a great deal buying one.

Read this years ago when it first came out before I started buying rugs. Wished that I had owned and copy before and am gad to have a copy now. Reading it again with deeper experience and thus, understanding. Worth the $. The seller's description of the product was accurate and it came quickly.

Great book to learn about oriental rugs and their history

This copy is for a friend. I have used this book to purchase many carpets over the years.

I am a newcomer in the world of persian rugs and found this book very useful. The more you read the more you understand that there is an entire world to discover and the author introduces you in this nice exotic world. It is by no means a complete guide on the subject but it is a very good starting point to understand the basics of the subject. I would highly recommend this book before reading other, more massive and detailed books.

... dann war wahrscheinlich dieses extrem informative Kompendium an Know-How daran beteiligt.Habe dieses Buch antiquarisch erhalten und bin mehr als glücklich damit.Wer sich mit der Tatsache anfreunden kann, dass es von zwei englischen Autoren geschrieben wurde und von daher naturgemäß in Englisch geschrieben ist, erhält den umfaßensten und besten Überblick den ich kenne - und ich kenne einige Bücher zum Thema "Orientalische Teppiche" - es werden aber auch nordafrikanische, russische und asiatische Teppichkunst betrachtet.Dabei werden sowohl detail- und kenntnisreich technische, soziologische, kulturelle, geographische, symbolisitische usw. Zusammenhänge betrachtet. Besonders beeindruckend und ungekünstelte, klare und informative Beschreibung. Themen werden angesprochen und perfekt erklärt.Besser geht - glaube ich - nicht und die neue, überarbeitete Auflage - die offensichtlich aktualisiert ist, ist ein echtes Lesevergnügen und begründet die Faszination.

Ce livre est vraiment une référence pour les amateurs de tapis d'orient. Les images sont d'une excellente qualité et le texte très riche en information. J'ai apprécié les indications sur l'éventuelle valeur en fonction du type de tapis, j'ai appris par exemple que les Bidjar sont très prisés.A recommander absolument pour celui qui veut approfondir ses connaissances de cet univers merveilleux des tapis d'orient.

I am new to oriental rugs and this book is getting me somewhere, so I will expand my knowledge in several areas og the oriental rugs history and production. Great buy!

alle Abläufe ok. Produkt hätte ich mir in einem etwas besseren Zustand gewünscht, aber die Begriffe sind ja dehnbar.

Ce guide ne contiend qu'une seule photo par type de tapis d'orient, ce qui n'est pas beaucoup quant on connaît les variétés des grands tapis iraniens, Kerman, Sarouk, Bidjar, etc.Il est par contre intéressant sur le plan technique de la fabrication.Le problème est qu'il n'existe pas de livre récent en français sur le sujet.