Identification
Every week someone in Nassau or Suffolk brings us a "Persian rug" that is tufted, or a "cheap rug" that turns out to be a hand‑knotted Heriz. The back of the rug settles it in seconds, and it matters, because the three constructions are cleaned and priced differently and are worth very different amounts.
Flip a corner of the rug and look at the back. You are looking for three things: can you see the design, is there a fabric backing, and how regular are the rows.
On a hand‑knotted rug every knot is tied by hand around the warp threads, so the back shows the same design as the front, slightly blurred, with small irregularities in the rows and in the outline of the motifs. The fringe is the actual warp threads continuing past the last row of knots, not sewn on. The sides are wrapped by hand. Fold the corner: the rug is flexible and the pile parts to show the knots. Hand‑knotted rugs from Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, China, Nepal and Morocco are what people mean by Oriental rugs, and they are the rugs worth washing properly and repairing.
If the back is covered edge to edge with a plain cotton or synthetic cloth, glued on, the rug is tufted. The wool was punched through a canvas with a tufting gun and held in place with latex, then the backing was glued over it. The fringe, if any, is a strip sewn to the ends. Tufted rugs are good everyday rugs and most mid‑range wool rugs from the big home retailers are tufted; they last as long as the latex, usually eight to fifteen years, and they must be washed cool and dried face‑up.
A machine‑made rug shows the design on the back, like a hand‑knotted rug, but the rows are perfectly straight and even, the back is stiff with a synthetic or jute layer, the fringe is sewn on or absent, and the label says polypropylene, nylon, polyester or "power‑loomed." The fiber is usually synthetic. These clean well with a degreaser and are the least expensive rugs to clean.
The fringe. If it is part of the rug (pull it gently and the whole rug moves), the rug is hand‑knotted or a flatweave. If it is a separate strip, the rug is tufted or machine‑made.
The burn test for fiber, if you are willing: a single fiber from the back that smells like burning hair is wool or silk; one that smells like paper is cotton or viscose; one that melts into a hard bead is synthetic.
A hand‑knotted wool rug is immersion‑washed. A tufted rug is washed cool and dried face‑up so the latex survives. A synthetic rug can be washed warmer with a degreaser. A viscose rug, whatever the construction, is never immersed. Get the construction wrong and the rug is damaged; that is why every rug at our plant is identified at inspection before anything else happens.
Drop‑offs welcome any day; call ahead and you can watch the dye test.
They are more durable, repairable and valuable, and they are the rugs worth investing in cleaning. A good tufted rug is still a good rug; it just has a shorter life.
Not necessarily; tufted and machine‑made rugs often have a fringe strip sewn on. Pull it: if only the fringe moves, it is sewn on.
Usually, from a clear photo of the back and a corner folded to show the pile. Send it with your quote request.