Since the advent of western industrialization in the nineteenth century, rugs have been manufactured by machine loom processes of various types. Such rugs are generally made from the same materials as hand-made rugs, wool, silk, and cotton, often of high quality. The the standards of fabrication may also be high, and consistently so. But machine made rugs are mechanical in their execution, and often in their design as well. They are programmatic and contain no surprises, no idiosyncrasies, none of the little bits of magic that add up to make a great hand-made rug. As mass-produced items they are generally less valuable, although some types of machine-made rugs like Wiltons or Karastans do command a high price.
