Specialist Louise Broadhurst advises on everything from the identification of natural dyes to finding the right setting on your vacuum cleaner. Illustrated with upcoming lots at Christie’s as well as others previously sold
Carpets have been collector’s items for centuries: we know from inventories that Henry VIII owned several hundred Turkish rugs, some of which appear in his many portraits by Hans Holbein — the paintings preserving the memory of objects that have nearly all since disappeared. Keen Persian rug collectors included Cornelius Vanderbilt and Sigmund Freud, who kept a rug draped over the couch on which his clients would sit.
Beautiful and extraordinary, let the room tell a story. What makes an Afghan rug stand out from others is the process of care and passion that goes into procuring it.
