A rather vulgar but very good way of telling whether a rug is doctored or not is to wet it with saliva and rub it in well. If chemically treated it will have a peculiar, disagreeable, pungent odor.
A fairly accurate way of determining the claim of the fabric to great age is to draw out a woof thread and notice how difficult it is to straighten it, even after days of soaking in water. Unless one is an expert, he should refrain from relying upon his own judgment in buying a rug for an antique.
It may be interesting to know the meaning of the tags and seals so frequently found on rugs. The little square or nearly square cloth tag that is so frequently attached at one corner to the under surface by two wire clasps has on it the number given to that particular piece for the convenience of the washer, the exporter, the importer and the custom officials. The rug is recorded by its number instead of by its name to avoid confusion and to save labor. The round lead seal which is frequently attached to one corner of the rug by a flexible wire or a string, especially among the larger pieces, is the importer's seal, on one side of which will be found his initials. These also are of great assistance to the custom officials.
Before closing this chapter a few words in regard to the selection of rugs for certain rooms might be acceptable, though this is, to a large extent, a matter of individual taste; yet in making a selection one should have some consideration for the decorations and furniture of the room in which the rugs are to be laid and they should harmonize with the side walls, whether the harmony be one of analogy or of contrast. The floor of a room is the base upon which the scheme of decoration is to be built. Its covering should carry the strongest tones. If a single tint is to be used the walls must take the next gradation and the ceiling the last. These gradations must be far enough removed from each other in depth of tone to be quite apparent but not to lose their relation. Contrasting colors do not always harmonize. A safe rule to follow would be to select a color with any of its complementary colors. For instance, the primary colors are red, blue, and yellow. The complementary color of red would be the color formed by the combination of the other two, which in this case would be green composed of yellow and blue; therefore red and green would form a harmony of contrast. Likewise red and blue make violet, which would harmonize with yellow; red and yellow make orange, which would harmonize with blue, etc.
SYMBOLIC PERSIAN SILK (TABRIZ) RUG
(See page [316])
Light rooms of Louis XVI style would hardly look as well with bright, rich colored rugs as they would with delicately tinted Kirmans, Saruks, and Sennas. Nor would the latter styles look as well in a Dutch dining room, finished in black oak, as would the rich, dark Bokharas and Feraghans. Mission rooms also require the dark colored rugs. If the room is pleasing in its proportion and one rug is used it should conform as nearly in proportion as possible. If the room is too long for its width select a rug which will more nearly cover the floor in width than it will in length. A rug used in the centre of a room with considerable floor area around it decreases the apparent size of the room. Long rugs placed lengthwise of a room increase its apparent length, while short rugs placed across a room decrease its apparent length, and rugs with large patterns, like wall paper with large patterns, will dwarf the whole apartment. The following ideas are merely offered as suggestions without any pretension whatever to superiority of judgment.
For a Vestibule a long-naped mat, which corresponds in shape to the vestibule and covers fully one-half of its surface, such for instance as a Beluchistan or a Mosul. Appropriate shorter naped pieces may be found among the Anatolians, Meles, Ladiks or Yuruks. As a rule the dark colored ones are preferable.