BEFORE my recent trip to India, I asked two rug importers in the U.S. about reputable carpet merchants in the places I planned to visit.
One dodged my request altogether. The other tried to dissuade me from buying anything. "You would be wiser to buy in the U.S. from a merchant you trust," said an e-mail from John B. Gregorian, author of "Oriental Rugs of the Silk Route" and president of Arthur T. Gregorian Oriental Rugs, a store in Newton Lower Falls, Mass. "Choose your Oriental rug dealer before you choose your Oriental rug," he said.
I've bought various rugs that way, so I understood his advice, although I thought it self-serving. What's more, several rugs I had acquired from a New York store were made in India. Because my husband, Ken Stern, and I were planning a family vacation to the north-central part of that country, a rug-production center, it seemed logical to make our next purchases at the source.
Much of what I learned about buying rugs in India would apply to Oriental rugs made in Pakistan, Afghanistan or other countries. (
Having tried without success to get leads here, we decided to scout out places after we arrived in India. Our challenge, when we traveled there in December, was to find rugs of higher quality and lower prices than we could get back home. To do that, we had to avoid tourist establishments and seek out stores where affluent Indians shop. I lined up a carpet authority in the U.S. to evaluate our finds, for better or worse, when we returned.
We traveled through the state of Rajasthan, where massive fortresses stand testimony to the lavish tastes of the Mogul and Rajput rulers who once dominated India.
Examples of the gigantic -- at least 10 by 30 feet -- carpets that furnished their palaces are displayed at the City Palace Museum in the bustling city of Jaipur. The rugs we sought were postage-stamp size by comparison, about 5 by 8 feet, and 4 by 6 feet, along with a couple of runners to fit the irregularly shaped staircase landings of our three-story brownstone in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Nor could we expect to match the muted ruby reds, celadon greens and deep indigos of the 17th century relics, all of which were made of natural dyes derived from plants and insects. Modern chemical dyes produce much brasher colors.
