Vintage Rugs & Carpets

Vintage wine. Vintage fashion. Vintage rugs. Why not? Once, carpets not old enough to be antique were called 'semi-antique.' This meant that they had signs of use, but not abuse, and that they had begun the age-toning of colors and had begun to develop a surface patina. New they weren't. The term had its negative connotations, however. The buyer of a semi-antique just couldn't step up to the real thing. It was a good enough substitute. When one had acquired taste or money, genuine antiques were waiting.

Vintage changed all of that. The cult of the antique is much diminished today. Grandmother's furniture cannot compete with mid-century modern, say from the late 1940s into the 1960s. Spaces are open and airy, uncluttered and not overly busy. Carpets play a less dominant role than in the prewar styles. Keep it simple. One rug is plenty and it need not cover the entire floor. Enter the vintage carpet. [...]

Vintage wine. Vintage fashion. Vintage rugs. Why not? Once, carpets not old enough to be antique were called 'semi-antique.' This meant that they had signs of use, but not abuse, and that they had begun the age-toning of colors and had begun to develop a surface patina. New they weren't. The term had its negative connotations, however. The buyer of a semi-antique just couldn't step up to the real thing. It was a good enough substitute. When one had acquired taste or money, genuine antiques were waiting.

Vintage changed all of that. The cult of the antique is much diminished today. Grandmother's furniture cannot compete with mid-century modern, say from the late 1940s into the 1960s. Spaces are open and airy, uncluttered and not overly busy. Carpets play a less dominant role than in the prewar styles. Keep it simple. One rug is plenty and it need not cover the entire floor. Enter the vintage carpet.

Many areas previously not in the handmade carpet universe entered the arena in the 1950s and 1960s, for instance Pakistan. Others including Afghanistan and Iran ramped up production enormously. Many were low grade carpets, to be used up and tossed out, but there were, and are, plenty of attractive, authentic, well-woven pieces. Rug styles changed subtly in response to evolving notions of decorative informality. These transitional, not traditional, rugs make up a large part of the vintage supply pool. For example, the Pakistani Turkmen rug is a vintage period innovation. In colors and sizes unavailable in the Russian originals, these carpets rapidly filled an otherwise unsupplied market. Many were, of course, of the very cheapest, lowest quality and have, mercifully, been discarded long ago. But a select group has better wool and has aged quite well. The dyes are synthetic and the patterns are a bit formulaically Turkmen, but they are now fifty or sixty years old and are on their second or third owners. Will they ever become cherished antiques? Probably not. Will they continue to give good service in various decorative contexts? Probably yes. Are they candidates for the vintage category? Most likely yes. The same goes for many of the post-WWII carpets from Persia, Afghanistan, Turkey and China.

One result of the post-WWII carpet boom is the exceptionally broad supply of vintage rugs. One need not make compromises regarding condition. For example, almost all non-new Moroccan rugs are vintage, virtually none are antique rugs. A Beni Ourain, Azilal or Rehamna of fifty or sixty years ago is a quite respectable carpet, hewing closely to older traditions, yet thoroughly up-to-date style wise, and available in great condition. And there are numbers from which to choose. This same line of reasoning goes for the red and navy Ersari Afghan ‘gulli-gul’ carpets. Still all wool, but in room sizes, these robust vintage rugs can be found at reasonable prices. The deep palettes and allover designs make them perfect for dining rooms. And they are still authentic carpets, representative of what was being woven fifty years ago. One could extend this line of reasoning to virtually any other carpet producing region.

Some vintage rugs are in line to become great antiques. Remember that the antique rugs we see now are not necessarily a random selection of those woven a century ago. There were plenty of low quality, disposable rugs then, as now, but these have been trashed out while the good ones have been preserved. The cream has risen to the top.
Which vintage rugs are the worthy antiques of the future? Anything naturally dyed with honest knotting. Rugs with quality materials. Rugs that say something artistically. Certainly, in the past twenty or thirty years, candidates for quality vintage and desirable antiques have been woven: the Turkish Azeri takeoffs on antique Heriz carpets, the naturally dyed, eccentrically drawn south Persian Gabbehs, certain Afghan interpretations of Caucasian and Turkish village rugs. Give all of these and others another few decades and we may well see the antiques of the future. Right now, the oldest of them are gracefully passing into vintage status.

The carpet universe is never static and innovations constantly pop up from hitherto unknown or disregarded places. Some of the best antique rugs came from locations new to carpet weaving in the 1870s or so. This line of reasoning applies to vintage rugs as well. Some originate in areas where there are no antique carpets. So how do you compare them? Take them on their own merits.

Some Oriental rugs make gestures to abstract modernism often called mid-century modern while others still broadly set in historic traditions called semi-antique rugs. Look for rugs where the pattern has been reduced to essentials and extraneous fussiness has been banished. Open patterns, bold colors, and distinctive geometries. Many European rugs tend in the same direction. Art Deco started it and the process of refining away the non-essentials has continued.

Need a splash of color in an otherwise monochrome decor? A vintage rug is totally satisfying. Need an accent under a glass-top Danish modern coffee table? Try a mid-century modern rug. There are no pretenses with vintage rugs, no cult of the old and respected. Try it, buy it, put it on the floor. One big advantage of vintage is that the risk of spills or damage is minimal. An antique rug has to be coddled; a vintage rug is made to be used.

There are plenty of attractive, individualistic, eminently usable rugs in the vintage category. It doesn't have to be an antique to be good. It just has to be good; period.