New York Rug Dealer

Oriental Rugs and carpets have always appeared as just that – a cultural product of the East with all the exotic associations that this conjures up. Initially one thinks of the weavers themselves working over their looms in the cities and towns of Persia or Turkey, and then the journ ey of the carpets into the commercial emporia or bazaars of such countries. The wonderful late nineteenth-century painting by Jean-Leon Gerome, “The Rug Merchant,” captures this exotic bygone age rather effecti vely. Even today travelers to Persia and Turkey can still attest to the vitality of the rug markets in places like Tabriz, Konya, Izmir, and, of course, Istanbul. But truth be told, no place in the Middle East can claim to be the center or capital of the international rug market nowadays, at least not in the realm of antique pieces. This title must go to London and even more to New York. The immediate reason for this is the presence there of major International auction houses with highly developed rug departments.Houses of this kind exist in Europe as well, but even they would yield pride of place New York and London if pressed.

Antique Rug Dealer New York

What makes New York stand out especially is the existence of a very well and long established rug district in addition to the auction houses. The Oriental rug district in Manhattan is a world unto itself. Located primarily in the low 30′s between Park and Seventh Avenues, this area comprises a range of establishments. There are full-fledged ground-level stores as well as second-floor galleries that offer a more formal, secluded escape from the bustle of the street. But many other dealers numbering in the hundreds fill floor after floor in various office buildings throughout this district. Dealers of this latter type cater mostly to the trade and to one another. They do engage in retail sales, but one has to knowantique Oriental rugs and their value rather well to buy from the office-building dealers, whose retail clients are mostly collectors. In any case, inManhattan alone we are talking about inventories that collectively amount to many thousands of old and antique rugs. Add to this the various uptown dealers or galleries in the decorator district of the East Side in the 50′s, and it becomes clear that New York can offer access to an incredibly varied and extensive supply of antique Oriental carpets that is unparalleled anywhere else on the planet.

Rug Dealer NY

Within the rug world, this is certainly no secret. Dealers from allover constantly come to New to have access to its supply of rugs. Such visits tend to swell enormously when there are major auctions or special exhibitions of rugs. And New York is not only attractive to European dealers and collectors, but even to those from the Orient. It is well know that dealers from Central Asia, Iran, and Turkey flock to New York to acquire antique pieces from their home regions. The reason for this is that the supply of antique pieces in these areas has long since dried up owing to an endless, century-old demand in the West for Oriental rugs. So when you buy an antique carpet in Istanbul or anywhere else in Turkey or the Middle East, it may well be a piece that had spent much of its life in Europe or the United States!

There is certainly a lesson in this. The idea of acquiring a rug on a trip to the Middle East is a romantic holdover from European and American tourist practices going back to the nineteenth century or earlier. On a certain level we all want to experience something like Gerome’s painting when we buy a fine Oriental rug. It is certainly wonderful to travel to these places, but if your goal is to acquire an antique carpet for the best price, you might as invest in a less expensive trip to New York. If you live in or Near New York, you might as well stay at home and concentrate your resources entirely on the rug itself. And in truth you do not even have to travel at all.

Among the various New York rug dealers, Nazmiyal has a highly specialized and user-friendly website with an extensive inventory of antique pieces of every type, size, and style. An inventory of this range and quality is based on years of experience and effort in searching out the best pieces from sources all over the world.Nazmiyal is also a natural magnet that constantly attracts those interested in selling rugs. Even within the bustling New York rug market with its international contacts, Nazmiyal provides a major focal point or nexus, all of which is at the disposal of Nazmiyal’s clients, whether they are dealers, interior designers, or private retail customers. If you want an Oriental carpet, New York is the place to be, and within New York itself, the place to be is Nazmiyal. Visit us online or experience our collection firsthand in the spacious and relaxed setting of our Manhattan rug gallery.

A 20/20 Perspective on a Unique Carpet Dealer – Jason Nazmiyal

Middle Eastern literature is replete with stories of magic carpets that fly into fantasy and take their passengers to exotic worlds. In truth, that is exactly what an original Persian carpet does, for although you may not think that it flies, the beauty of these rugs is that they were made to be a floor tapestry woven to transport the owner into a world of gardens, flowers, cedars and flowing paradise waters. An escape from a barren world of hot sun and sand was and is created in a thicket of woven wool, cotton, silk and sometimes gold and silver thread. There is not much difference between the concrete jungle of our cities and the antiquity of Tach Jam Sheet (Persepolis). The carpet can make everyone a Shah, an Emir, a Pasha or a King, and regardless of room size, it can make every space a miniature exotic palace.

I’ve been a designer and collector of carpets for 35 years. In the decades of turning pages, visiting exotic lands and surfing the Internet, the task has been to find the dealer with the best eye. Few of us can trundle to auctions, bargain in Farsi and Turkish, jet set our way into strange and difficult climes, and pay obeisance to governments that especially today do not find Americans as lovable as we might hope. The result is our need to find an agent, an ambassador, a consultant, and a friend that can and will act as an emissary to cut the Gordian Knot. Such an agent may find a selection of artworks that in a modern world can fly us to places we fear to visit, or take us to streets and bazaars too difficult to navigate, which are delineated with alphabets as strange as hieroglyphics.

In that the world has unraveled itself into a pre-Columbus map drawn by our modern-day Amerigo Vespucci – Tom Freedman – carpet prices are as consistent whether one withdraws a ruble, dollar, franc or drachma from one’s wallet. Prices in the Central Bazaar in Istanbul, the Island of Kish, Iran or at the Textile Expo in Germany have all become “Ebayed”.

I have lifted many a carpet over with my toe to see a weave, pondered many a volume of curious lore about Middle Eastern floor and wall art, negotiated with at least 100 dealers, sorted by “highest price” on Internet search engines, and googled my way to 300 web sites with keywords like “Antique Rugs, Persian Rugs, Oriental Rugs, Serapi, Heriz, Agra, Sultanabad” etc., until I found the land beyond the Sambatyan  the land of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, the Mother load of classy, rich, well-designed, antique, genteel and attractive carpets. But, it was not in Tehran, nor by the Bospherous, nor in the mountains of the Caucasus, but with Nazmiyal in New York and New Jersey. It’s co-owner, Jason responded to my fractured Farsi Chey Chabar with Salam a Tee, and we were soon putting in search fields and closing deals from my office and his showroom.

Jason did not request that I take time and write a letter of recommendation. He did not guide my computer keys in which I have waxed prolific in compliments it came as a result of my appreciation for his having saved me the air fare, hours and days of flipping heavy carpets taxing the men who with full brows of perspiration make me feel guilty regardless of venue. I write this out of sincere admiration for Jason’s ability to assemble a collection of the finest designs, whose prices reflect their value. Jason is a testament to that for which I have searched for 40 years, a person who shares my eye chart in the quality of woven art for which I have taken these many years of pleasure.

by Wilbur Pierce