Стр. 79 - AZƏRBAYCAN XALÇALARI

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- Please tell us about yourself and how
long have you been dealing with rugs?
- Personally, I was raised in Lexington,
Massachusetts, graduated from The Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania, and married the
woman of my dreams. I have three pre-
cious kids, who are better than I am at eve-
rything, and one crazy dog that doesn't
know she's a dog. I'm lucky for what I have
and lucky for what I do. I love what I do
(most days) and I do what I love.
I have been dealing in Oriental rugs for
over ten years. Both my parents were ma-
jor collectors of antique rugs, so as long as I
can remember I've always been passionate
about Oriental rugs. They were pretty fussy
about what surrounded us in our home.
I grew up in a home where you couldn’t
build a fort with the sofa pillows.
Once we were decorating our home
and I was looking for new rugs that
looked like the old rugs I grew up
with. But I just couldn’t find them.
Then I started digging, reading books,
and talking to experts. And I found
out that there was a group of weav-
ers whose art and skills were passed
down through generations and that
a small group was employed by Azer
Ilme Carpet Company in Azerbaijan. These
totally handmade rugs were marvelous re-
productions of the old ones. And they were
as fine as the finest originals. The materials
found in Azerbaijan are unique. The dyes
for the rugs come from local indigenous
plants, flowers, nuts, and berries. The qual-
ity of the finished product comes from the
type of sheep raised here, the grass they
eat, and even the soil the grass is grown in.
Nearly all of our rugs are Caucasian
(Azerbaijani) rugs, Northwest Persian rugs,
or Turkish rugs.
- What attracts you to a rug?
- It’s everything. It’s hard to articulate.
Part of it is my background; part of it is
that it’s an incredible art form. It is power-
ful, sublime… first of all they are so hard to
make, people don’t realize; they think it’s
just a rug. It’s labor intensive; it is so diffi-
cult. And when you think about the history
behind the carpets, they just do something.
It’s the synergy, the design, the colors, the
wool... the fact that the rugs are alive...that
they are art you can walk on.
- What types of carpets do you have in
your collection and which one is the old-
est (and how old is that carpet)?
5-year-old Richard, sitting on top of antique Karabakh rug
Richard, holding antique Pirebedil and Сhelebi rug