Azizollahoff, J. R. The Illustrated Buyer's Guide to Oriental Carpets:Schiffer Publishing, Ltd. 1999 |
Persian Rugs the O'Connell Guides |
Azizollahoff, J. R. The Illustrated Buyer's Guide to Oriental Carpets:Schiffer Publishing, Ltd. 1999 |
Persian Rugs the O'Connell Guides |
Notes on Illustrated Buyer's GuideThis is a copy of a book review that I did for Rug News. I am not aware of what editorial changes were made by my editor when they published it. I have had a thought kicking around in my head for quite a while that I have not really articulated till now. At first I thought the problem with most rug books is that they are written by men for men but it is much more insidious than that. The real problem with most rug books is that they are written by collectors for collectors. Recently I received a copy of a book that bucks that trend. The Illustrated Buyer's Guide to Oriental Carpets "The Illustrated Buyer's Guide to Oriental Carpets" by J. R. Azizollahoff is the first book on carpets that I ever remember my wife showing any real interest in. I was out of town when the box came so I asked Jodi to open it and see what had come. By the time I had gotten home Jodi was well into the book and told me I could look at it but she wanted it back. Looking at "The Illustrated Buyer's Guide to Oriental Carpets" it dawned on me that what Azizollahoff had done was to do a book on decorative carpets. Sure many of the carpets are collectable but he approaches them as decorative carpets. The text is geared to the decorative carpet market. Collectors like me want to dwell on all the little intricacies and nuances of where it was woven and why. That sort of thing may have everything to do with selling a 200 year old Turkmen Juval but very little to do with finding someone just the right carpet for their living room. The pictures are outstanding. Wonderful color, great carpets and geared to the kind of buyer you need to make your business successful. How big a part of your yearly retail sales are in collectable rugs to collectors. If you are like most carpet dealers it is 10 percent or less. A good friend of mine is a carpet dealer who has started sending his small collectors pieces to me to auction. He explains that even though he is a collector and loves them he will sell 10 room size rugs before anyone will even look at his little pieces. Many of the dealers I know wholesale out all the collectors pieces and concentrate on room size rugs. What captivated my wife Jodi was that the carpets she saw in "The Illustrated Buyer's Guide to Oriental Carpets" were ones that she would like in our home. This book for those of us in the trade is like crawling into the buyers mind during the selection process. New Section What then makes this carpet different than the vast assortment of rug books on the market today. First of all this book is geared to the decorative rug buyer. It presents in a straight forward manner the best of each of the decorative categories. Most books make antique carpets the focus and sneer at new production. What Azizollahoff does is to present Antique and New in a nonjudgmental way that makes the New Production look as attractive as the Antique. So when we see a Old Indian Amritsar from Abraham Moheban & Sons on page 177 or a New Chinese Sumac from from Nourison on page 73 there is not the all to common message that new is bad and old is better. Of course Azizollahoff notes that the Nourison Sumac is valued at $3,400 and the Moheban Amritsar at $45,000 so the reader can see there is a difference but there is nothing to indicate that the Sumac is less worthy of decorating the buyers home than the Amritsar. This is very much the sort of book that you can let your customers especially if you sell any newer carpets. Joe Azizollahoff knows the decorative carpet market. On the inside front cover we are told that Azizollahoff is third generation carpet dealer from a prominent family from Mashad Iran. Of course the pivotal role of the great families of the Persian Jewish and in particular the Mashadi Jewish community are well known so we get a glimpse of the trade secrets that have served them so well. But more important than what the book tells us about Azizollahoff is what his work shows us about him. The selection of carpets is beautiful. He gives us a good cross-sample of the very best of the market. To those of us who sell carpets it is a good scale to measure our rugs against. Whether it is a modern carpet such as a Yayla or Woven Legends or an antique Serapi or Bijar, Azizollahoff shows us what the best look like. But as importantly he reviews the the criteria that makes the best the best and shows you how to apply the criteria to what you sell. The frank and open discussion of subjects like cut and reduced carpets, repaired, painted and so on. is a wonderful refresher course for experienced carpet dealers and invaluable for people learning the business. Honesty, Integrity and knowledge is key to our business. But equally important is understanding what the market wants. Azizollahoff gives us a clear picture of the secrets of his success and this is valuable. For Further Reading: Thanks and best wishes, J. Barry O'Connell Jr. |
