This past weekend, I was watching a YouTube channel documentary about a forthcoming sale of high-quality Oriental carpets at Grogan’s Auctions. The rugs were outstanding, and I am sure they will bring really strong prices as the condition of the pieces was over the top. Who could imagine a 19th-century carpet with its original sheen still intact? In seeing so many wonderful rugs, it got me to thinking about the Orientals in my house, which are quite far removed from the great ones at Grogan’s.
My dear friend and mentor Irwin Richman told me that he stopped collecting expensive Orientals when he had kids and dogs. I embraced that philosophy. When I was a newlywed in my first home, it was remnant carpets from Ollies “Good Stuff Cheap.” Ollies furnishes a lot of things for new and established households to this day, but back in the early 1990s, they often had remnants of high-quality carpeting purchased for expensive offices and hotels. A lovely French carpet decorated our home for years until I got my first Oriental rug.
That first Oriental, a big Meshed, came from my friend Jay Yupcavage. It was probably too good of a rug for a young couple with a baby and dogs. A lot of pee and puke stains later, it was ruined. I loved it, but then again, so did everyone else.
I also inherited a small nondescript runner that came from my grandparents’ home. I loved that rug because it came from family and it had the softness that I truly loved in old Orientals. The problem was, it had been kept in a damp basement for years and then in a hot attic. By the time it came to me, it was dry rotted and came apart. Strike two for the Orientals.
Over the years, I did covet many Orientals. Occasionally I would dip my toe into it all, like when I made two trips to Frederick, Md., to buy the shabbiest Chinese carpet in the world. The price was right, and so it came home. It suffered from an incontinent border terrier who loved it to pieces, quite literally. Strike three!
I also have been incredibly intimidated by the Oriental rug market. Some readers remember the days when trucks from New York would arrive at country sales in Pennsylvania where Oriental rugs were advertised. The auctioneer would visibly wince at the sight of the rug dealers as their checks were often no good, and so he had to fight to get cash from them before allowing a rug to be picked up. They outbid everyone, and no one knew where the rugs ended up going. It was something out of a movie.
In the last few years, the kids have grown up to the point of not having toys on the floor. But we still have dogs who as they age have more and more issues. I still want Orientals. So my eye, and wallet, turned back to the antiques markets. Big inexpensive older (let’s say from the 1960s) Orientals are cheaper and common, so they have been strategically placed where the dogs are. And my little bit of discretionary money has gone to smaller Orientals that go in corners and under furniture. They are not great, probably not even good, but they do have the softness of old ones that I cherish more than anything else.

“Born to collect" should be the motto of Peter Seibert's family. Raised in Central Pennsylvania, Seibert has been collecting and writing about antiques for more than three decades. By day, he is a museum director and has worked in Pennsylvania, Wyoming, Virginia and New Mexico. In addition, he advises and consults with auction houses throughout the Mid-Atlantic region, particularly about American furniture and decorative arts. Seibert's writings include books on photography, American fraternal societies and paintings. He and his family are restoring a 1905 arts and crafts house filled with years' worth of antique treasures found in shops, co-ops and at auctions.