Few things add more value to a room than a vintage rug. An antique rug, maybe.
In this article, we’ll take a look at what the difference is between vintage rugs and antique rugs, what you should know about the two categories, why you should care, and finally where to buy them online.
Vintage rugs and antique rugs (more on the difference between the two in a minute) are not just any rugs. They are rugs with a story.
That’s the thing about old stuff – objects with stories. They bring all their stories, their atmospheres, their moods right with them to wherever they are placed.
Put together a fully standard IKEA-apartment, and one old object, like a vintage rug, will help the whole place to develop a character immediately.
The transformation will be mesmerizing, really.
Now buying a vintage rug, let alone buying an antique rug is nothing like a visit to your nearest IKEA or Wayfair megastore.
And, quite frankly, it’s anything but straightforward.
So, considering the substantial amount of money that’s at stake, it makes perfect sense to get the basics right before you set out on an adventure like that.
In this post, we’re about to do just that.
Getting the Basics Right
First things first, what’s a vintage rug, and what’s an antique rug? What’s the difference? And what’s in between?
Okay. Here’s the deal.
Antique rugs are rugs that are at least a hundred years old.
Vintage rugs are rugs that are at least twenty years old.
Now, these terms and numbers are not in any way precise, nor are they carved in stone.
However, there’s a broad consensus on the terminology in relation to the age of a specific rug as above.
Some will, of course, say that a 20-year-old rug is by no means vintage. It needs to be at least 25, or even 30 years old.
But by and large, you get the idea.
It’s not only the consensus that is broad. The categories are broad, too.
So in order to make things a bit more sophisticated, we need to mention three more categories.
What’s in between antique rugs and vintage rugs?
There is the category of semi-antique rugs. Most will say that a semi-antique rug is between 50 and 100 years old. Others say it’s between 80 and 100. Others, still, say that this is a made-up category, that doesn’t really exist.
Then there are the Mid Century rugs. Mid Century (referring to the middle of the 20th century in this context, more precisely to the post 2nd World War design trends and movements starting in the late 40s) rugs sometimes fall in the semi-antique category. Sometimes they are simply vintage.
Which in a way makes sense, since the production of the items bearing the stylistic elements of Mid Century design hugely outlasted the actual design trend itself.
And then some say that Mid Century is so essential that it merits a category on its own.
Finally, what do you call a rug that’s not new, but that is less than 20 years old?
Sorry, pal, that’s just second-hand.
Okay, so we more or less nailed the details with broad brushstrokes. Next, let’s do the Math together and get down to the details.
Antique Rugs
If you are reading this in the 2020s, then it will come to you as no surprise that antique rugs (remember, 100 or more years old?) are the rugs from the early 1920s or before.
This is great because these rugs share a few characteristics that clearly tell them apart from most of the rugs produced at a later time period.
First, these rugs were not commercially produced, and they were by no means mass-produced.
Before the 1920 most rugs were produced by skilled artisans, who put months and years of work into their rugs using traditional weaving and knotting techniques.
Not just Practical Objects
Rugs that survived from more than a hundred years ago are of high quality. Even in their own time, they were symbols of social status, thus highly appraised, and extremely expensive.
We will look at some details a little later, but basically, this difference in the production techniques and overall purpose is what sets antique rugs apart.
And this difference sometimes accounts for a substantial (say, 60% or even more) price difference between an antique and a vintage rug, whose difference in age, looking from our point in time, might not otherwise explain such a huge price gap.
‘Antique’ is not a consistent category
Antique rugs, of course, cover many centuries of artisan work, so there can be drastic differences among the value and prices of items that all fall in the ‘antique’ category.
Estimating the value of these one-of-a-kind rugs as well as determining their age is a profession on its own, but to admittedly oversimplify the matter in order to get the price of a unique, antique rug, you have to take the following aspects into consideration:
- The exact age of the rug
- Its country of origin
- The technique used to produce the rug
- The raw material of the rug
- Its general condition
- The rarity of the style and the pattern of the rug
- And the size of the rug
Some antique rugs are inevitably worn out, so the maintenance or even the renovation of these rugs can be unavoidable. That’s okay.
By widely accepted industry standards, as long as the renovated part consists of less than a half of the entire rug, the item can still be listed as ‘antique’.
Semi-antique Rugs
Remember 1929?
You probably don’t have personal memories from that year, I get it, but I mean do you remember what they told you about 1929 in History class?
Yupp, that’s the year of the Great Depression – with capital letters.
When things seemed to ease up a little after the shock of World War I, it suddenly all went downhill.
The collapse of the world economy didn’t play out well for the market of rugs, either.
Adapting to the Changed Environment
Demand for unique, high-quality, elaborate, and extremely pricey items practically disappeared.
And people who up until then made their living by producing or selling rugs had to do something about it.
Some technologies already existed, like synthetic dyes, or certain production technologies. More than a century passed since the inception of the industrial revolution, after all.
Other technologies were yet to be invented.
Suffice to say that in the process of making rug production more efficient, and consequently making rugs more affordable, sacrifices were made on the altar of quality. And that shows.
All the means that producers, even those who soldiered on making hand-woven rugs, implemented in order to cut production costs result in slightly lower quality in the end.
Cutting corners at the time was essential for survival. Few bothered to consider long-term consequences.
Poor weaving quality
As machine-made rugs flooded the markets, making compromises on the basic production technology must have seemed an obvious choice.
The ultimate metric used to determine this quality of a rug is knots per square inch (KPSI if you want to geek out). The more knots, the higher the quality. And not surprisingly, reducing the number of knots speeds up production time, thus reduces the final price.
Which was the goal in the first place.
Less elaborate design
Now this one is tricky.
An antique rug usually tells a lot about the life of its maker. Since these rugs were produced for a longer period of time – months or even years -, the person knotting the rugs did incorporate their own stories with a unique combination of traditional design elements.
Semi-antique rugs usually boast a lot busier design than their true antique counterparts, but they still have way less to tell.
This is because rug designers were among the firsts to utilize the mass production approach that was immortalized by Ford’s T-Model.
Industrial-style production
They practically reduced production time by teaching weavers one design type, and one design type only. So the weaver would sit in, and do the very same design over and over again, becoming highly skilled – and lightning fast at it.
Designers used havier, and sometimes more cluttered patterns to offset the lack of meaning – and the lack of good taste in many cases.
On top of all that, due to the lower price point, customers also came from lower-class social status, who then had a less elaborate sense of tastes.
Using lower-quality raw materials
After production time and the cost of labor have been taken care of, another evident thing to look at was raw material.
Second- and third-grade wools, lower quality dyes came into play. This is why plenty of semi-antique rugs of the 1930s now look somewhat muddy, despite the harsh colors and the busy patterns.
Most of them also feel a lot more rigid, and sometimes even scratchy on the surface than rugs from the preceding decades.
Vintage Rugs
Vintage rugs have a clear advantage over semi-antique rugs in that they are not continuously compared to antique rugs.
The difference is more clear-cut, and no one has that awkward feeling when dealing with lookalikes. It’s like vintage rugs don’t try to pretend. They just are.
These rugs are proud to be commercially produced, using contemporary technologies and materials, which include machine-made rugs and synthetic fibers and dyes.
Since rug production evolved into a full-fledged industry by the mid-20th century, the quality of these vintage rugs varies on an extremely broad range. But those that counted as quality pieces in their own time count as quality pieces now.
The way they survived these past decades (and the condition they’re in after these decades) serves as a good indicator.
Mid Century Rugs
Speaking of Mid Century rugs in a post detailing the difference between antique and vintage rugs might seem a little odd. I’ll still give Mid Century rugs their own section, as some people treat them as an entirely different category.
Mid-century design is in fashion to this day. Rugs featuring mid-century design elements are in the selection of any major rug seller or vendor.
But the pieces that popularized Mid Century design were introduced in the second half of the 1940s and were in production until the late 1970s. In some cases even longer.
Original mid-century rugs or just mid-century-style rugs?
So when we are talking about mid-century rugs in this context, we are referring to “the original” mid-century rugs that were, indeed, produced in the middle of the twentieth century and not as part of vintage or retro chic.
Design aside, however, when it comes to other characteristics Mid Century they are practically equivalent to any vintage rug.
Because, well, that’s what they ultimately are.
It’s all nice and interesting, you say, but what about the practicalities?
I’m glad you asked!
Now that we’ve established the basics when it comes to categorizing rugs by their ages, let’s have a look at our number one tip on shopping for vintage or antique rugs.
Stay away from flea markets or (if you’re in a tradiional rug-producing country) bazaars
Bazaars can be great fun, especially if you enjoy lengthy negotiations, bargaining, and having something you think is a good deal in the end.
Some people just adore this kind of stuff.
But entertainment aside, you probably wouldn’t think about investing in a bazaar. You can’t bargain on a Tesla share or a government bond. And that’s a good thing, too.
An Old Rug is an Investment Decision
A vintage, let alone an antique rug is an investment. Treat it as such!
When it comes to investing your money, your decision is as much about trust as about anything else.
You buy Tesla shares because you trust Elon. When you buy Facebook shares instead, you do so because you trust Mark more. And when you buy a state bond, then you trust that both these guys will go broke before the government does.
Either way, I’m not judging you. I’m just explaining why you can’t make a responsible investment decision while sipping apple tea with a bloke you just met two minutes ago.
Of course, you can, but it won’t end well.
Go Foolproof
Unless you are a seasoned rug expert (in which case I find it hard to explain why you’re reading this in the first place), make yourself a favor, and find a reputable supplier. Even if that means paying some overhead. You may end up paying some more, but you will get what you were after.
Thank yourself (and us) later.
Now there are basically two ways to go about it.
You can do your own research, and chances are that you’ll be able to find a trustworthy vendor, who’s been in the business for decades, knows the ins and outs of the industry, and won’t turn his expertise against you.
There are reputable local rug galleries virtually everywhere. You just need to track them down.
Easier if you’re in Manhattan, more difficult if you’re in rural Finland.
Or, you can choose to go the other way and buy from one of the best online stores for vintage and antique rugs.
Revival Rugs
Our first choice when it comes to buying vintage rugs is the online store Revival Rugs.
These guys hand-pick vintage rugs mostly from Turkey and Morocco and offer their curated selection for an affordable price.
While their selection is huge, and it’s also broad, most of the items are only one-made type unique.
The online store is very user-friendly, you can filter results by color tone, size, price, pattern, or even country of origin.
If you intend to steer clear of the current design trends and want to make sure that none of your friends will pick the same area rug for her living room, make sure you select one of Revival Rugs’ vintage area rugs.
You’ll be safe.