Antique Persian Rug Investments

I am a property investor but I am branching out into other areas of investment, especially with the current recession being felt in the property market. One area I am exploring is antique Persian rug investments. However collecting antique Persian rugs is not an investment hobby for the faint-hearted.

You can pay several thousand to several hundred thousands (and even millions) of dollars for a Persian carpet that may or may not be an antique. As you get no passive income but are relying on time and demand to increase the value of your antique Persian rug investments then you want to be pretty sure that the Persian rug you have purchased is a genuine antique Persian rug.

One way to help you identify genuine antique Persian rug investments is knowing where they were made and what type of rugs they are. For example if they were made in Pakistan, China, Romania or India then these rugs probably are not genuine. These countries didn’t start manufacturing Persian carpets until after 1945 and even later.

In addition to this, Persian rugs from these countries are usually thicker and heavier than the traditional antique Persian rugs. Other types of rugs that have only appeared in the last 100 years include the Persian Qum rugs, White Kashans, a lighter colored rug, and the thick, pastel colored rugs called Taba-Tabriz Persian rugs.

A second way to help you identify antique Persian rug investments is to learn the range of colors they come in. The reason for this is that antique Persian rugs were colored with vegetable dyes that limited the range of colors available. Synthetic dyes, which offer a wider range of color choice, were not used until the 1920’s. For example traditional Hamadan rugs used a camel colored background but the modern Hamadan rugs have more color variety.

Another way that knowing your antique Persian rug colors helps is by looking at the tufts of the carpet. If the colors gradually lighten from the base to the top of the tuft then chances are that the rug is a genuine antique. If there is minimal fading of the colors through the length of the tufts then synthetic dyes have probably been used to color or enhance the carpet.

Although these tips are of some help in identifying antique Persian rug investments, unless you are very experienced in shopping around for antique Persian rugs my best tip for you is to enlist the help of an expert.

It is fine, and fun, for you to search for your antique Persian rug investments yourself but for peace of mind and an assurance that it is a wise investment, you should always get a second opinion from an expert. This may cost you a bit of money up front but it will earn you possibly thousands down the track. Here is one expert who can help you in your antique Persian rug investments journey but there are a few out there so look around for one that you get on with and who has the necessary experience. Good luck and enjoy the antique Persian rug investments journey.