What condition really means in a vintage carpet

New collectors tend to ask one question of condition: how much pile is left? It is the least useful question. A carpet with low, even pile and untouched structure is a better object — and usually a better investment — than one plumped back to fullness by aggressive restoration.

The hierarchy of honesty

Specialists read condition roughly in this order: structure first — foundation intact, no cuts, no reductions; surface second — wear even rather than patchy; edges and ends third — original selvedges and fringes, or sympathetic securing; colour last, because colour that has survived the first three is usually telling the truth.

A 'reduced' carpet — cut down and reseamed to fit a room, a common fate of large pieces in the early twentieth century — has lost its composition. However skilful the seam, the borders no longer answer the field, and the trained eye feels the amputation before it finds the evidence.

Restoration and its ethics

Good restoration is conservative. Securing ends so knots cannot ravel, stabilising a selvedge, closing a split with sympathetic material: all of this protects the object. Repiling worn areas with new wool, tinting faded dyes, or 'painting' the foundation where pile has gone — these are cosmetic interventions that trade the carpet's honesty for a showroom surface, and the market increasingly punishes them.

Our practice

Every piece we offer carries a written condition note stating plainly what has been done to it — including nothing. Where we commission conservation, it is documented and reversible wherever possible. A carpet described as untouched should mean exactly that.