What is the difference between hand knotted and machine made rugs?
Hand-knotted orientals outlast their machine made cousins by at least fifty years, and usually much longer. When compared with a true oriental, a machine made rug lacks charm, originality, durability, and potential investment value. Machine made copies may initially cost you less (not always) but, pause to consider its replacement cost after, for instance, ten years of family life. Add to this the cost of inflation and the fact that machine made rugs have little, if any, resale value. It is prudent to spend a relatively small extra amount of money and buy a handmade oriental rug. A true oriental at ten years of age is still considered “new” by the trade.
