Oriental Carpets: A Complete Guide - The Classic Reference

Caveat: You won't know a thing about rugs until you start to shop around, until you start touching them. You'll have to look at the knots, at the foundation and the edges, and run your hands over the pile. You'll need to feel the difference between a silk weave and a wool weave. That said, this book gives a thorough informational grounding in the topic. The book starts with an account of what little is known of the origins of carpet making. The next chapter describes how carpets are constructed. Weavers make short knots that form the visible pile; the pile is woven on an invisible foundation of warps and wefts. There are many types of knots, and surprisingly many types of warps and wefts as well! The book then explains what materials are used--mostly wool, cotton, and silk--how they are spun into yarns, and how they are colored, with either natural or synthetic dyes. The colors are of course central to a carpet's designs, which is the topic of the following chapter. The authors then proceed to review the great carpet making regions. There's a huge chapter on Persian rugs, followed by a chapter on Turkish rugs. These are followed by shorter chapters on the rugs of the Caucasus, India & Pakistan, China, Turkestan, Tibet, North Africa, and the Balkans. Rugs are like wine, or like any fine object. One cannot learn the topic from a book, one must learn from the things themselves. A good book though is invaluable in reducing how long it will take to feel comfortable with the topic. One last word. There are 348 illustrations of extremely high quality, making the book itself a very beautiful object. It's a great coffee table book. Vincent Poirier, Tokyo

Great reference book with full color plates for illustration. Excellent historical information. Well researched by authors.

Pretty detailed but a little dated. Informative but you need to dig for that info. A little pedantic and too scholarly but still a book most people interested in collecting Oriental carpets will want to have. The above was my original review but I sat down and started to actually read the entire book. The section on dyes is worth the price of entry. The details are the point and worth reading through. The section on China is excellent - better then his 1979 book on Chinese and Exotic Rugs. A must have for anyone interested in Oriental rugs. The big five are this one, How to Read Islamic Carpets by Walter Denny, Oriental Carpets from the Tents, Cottages and Workshops of Asia by Jon Thompson, Oriental Rugs Today by Emmett Eiland, and Tribal Rugs by James Opie

Bought for myself as a tool to help teach myself about Persian rugs, this book is so wonderful I gave it as a housewarming present to a friend of mine, freshly divorced who is decorating his new house. Perfect! The authors, the Murray Eilands Jr. and III, a father and son team, are experts in their field. The father, a practicing psychiatrist in California, has been studying and collecting Oriental rugs for almost 40 years, and his son has a doctorate from Oxford in Near Eastern archeology (including textile development), so you would be learning from very special, knowledgeable accomplished folks who love their textiles and rugs. I recommend this book highly.

Detailed , descriptive and erudite with marvelous plates. The best book I have found on the subject and obviously the result of time spent, travel and research. A pleasure to read and a real source of information.

Great reference book for anyone interested in carpets.

I wanted to educate myself about Oriental rugs as I am thinking of importing the same. A must have for a person who wants to educate himself about rugs. The authors are very comprehensive and knowledgeable. They have done their research and the reader gets an idea about the history, weaving and different types of Oriental rugs. A great read.

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