Question: In woven carpets, which is better: the Turkish or the Persian knot?
Answer: The quality of a carpet is not determined only by the type of knot. In Iran alone, perhaps 600 different types of knots are used, among them ones also used in Turkey. For the connoisseur, division of knots in terms of symmetry or asymmetry is insufficient.

Question: In Germany, I once saw a sale of Persian carpets with reductions of up to 80%. Will you also hold similar sales?
Answer: No. "Sales" of this type are a dishonest commercial trick. The good are given an inflated price, which is then crossed out and the new (originally, the correct) price is loudly proclaimed as an 80% discount. And even this "new" price is often higher than at the dealer around the corner.

Question: Is anti-moth protection necessary, even if we have no moths in our home?
Answer: No. The moth is a nocturnal insect, and is only found where it is dark and airless, in unventilated spaces like wardrobes, or in the event that furniture is placed on a carpet such that it is cut off from light and air. At present, there are relatively few such cases, but if it is so, anti-moth protection must be employed. The modern way of life - regular ventilation, lighting well into the night - means that moths, who can do damage in a wardrobe, nonetheless are not dangerous (with rare exceptions) to carpets. Several of our carpets have been given an anti-moth treatment, but not all.

Question: How do you recognise a genuine nomadic carpet?
Answer: According to the fringe. This is of wool, and thus darker than the cotton fringes of industrially made carpets. Nomads have not cotton, and thus spin the warp of the carpet from the wool of their animals. It can even be from camel or goat wool. In fact, the fringe has a definite significance: if it emerges out of the carpet as a continuation of the warp, it is a hand-woven carpet. For machine-made carpets, the fringes are sewn on afterwards. The thickness of the fringe determines how tightly the carpet is woven: a thin silk warp can easily take tiny clustered knots, while thicker warps only allow for coarser work. A specialist can determine the cost of a carpet according to the fringe. For the Nain carpets from Persia, it is in fact the decisive criterion.

Question: How can you recognise a prayer carpet?
Answer: The lower portion of the field is level, while the upper portion comes together in the shape of an niche. Often, there are columns along the side, and a lamp hanging from the ceiling of the niche. (Prayer carpets of nomads often have the ceiling in the shape of a nomadic tent.) In every mosque, there is one wall, the one facing towards Mecca (termed the "qibla" or "kiblik"), in which there is an alcove ("mihrab") and hanging in it, a lamp: the light of revelation falls from above. A prayer carpet is a stylised representation of this mihrab. Muslims view the prayer carpet as separating them from the unclean earth when praying. Still, it is nothing uncommon, as can at times be observed in Iran, that at the hour of prayer a lorry driver will stop, jump from the cabin, bow his head into the dust of the road, and pray even without a carpet.

Question: Why should you not vacuum a Persian carpet immediately after purchase?
Answer: You may. A high-quality Oriental carpet can be vacuumed from the very first day. The "dead hairs" created during hand-working of wool, are vacuumed away during the first few days, and from then on you will never see another hair in your vacuum cleaner. This is, of course, not true for cheap carpets of low-quality wool, like some of the "Indo-Nepalese" or "Indo-Tibetan" carpets. These ones need minimally half a year of walking on them, and afterwards should be vacuumed only very carefully. Their price should correspond to their quality, which is a matter up to the seller's conscience.

Question: Are some carpets actually woven by children?
Answer: In Egypt yes, in Iran no, in India sometimes, in Pakistan it is often the only way to survive, in Nepal no, etc. Those who have never seen with their own eyes the unbelievable misery of certain developing countries should not be so quick to condemn child labour. I myself do not by products of child labour. It is for God to decide if my decision is correctů

Question: I will be travelling to Turkey. Can I find carpets there cheaper than in your sales room?
Answer: Frequently, we have customers stop by after returning from Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey, or other countries; they bring their souvenir carpet with them and are unpleasantly surprised by the price they "reduced" by 70 % after an hour's bargaining when the realise that ours was in fact lower. I make my purchases at the regular wholesale price, and the margin is in correspondence to the Czech market. The price, though, is not always the most important - there is also a value in buying the souvenir on your travels in the actual country of origin. Above all, the real question is if you are pleased with the carpet.

Question: Which carpet is better - a Persian or a Nepalese?
Answer: My response is the question: which is better - an apple or a pear? A Nepalese carpet may be of the finest quality and woven from Tibetan wool, a Persian carpet may be loosely woven from poor-quality wool. It depends on the personal taste of the customer, and on the interior where the carpet is to be placed. If I had in front of me a super-modern interior with lots of chrome, glass, and black tints, I would probably recommend a modern Nepalese. The most valuable pieces throughout history, though, have been carpets from Persia.

Question: The room I would like to furnish has dimensions of 7 x 12 m. Do you have a carpet in these dimensions?
Answer: We do. In your case, though, I would recommend a different solution. Oriental carpets should not be laid from wall to wall. Part of the parquet floor should create a frame for the carpet, as with a painting. Determining the suitable size only from the floor space, the maximum dimensions for you would be 5 x 10 m - 1 m of free floor space on each side. But not even this is necessarily the optimal solution, because each portion of the room has its special character, and separate smaller carpets could possibly help to emphasise the individuality of each section. One carpet could be placed by the sofa, another by the billiard table, etc. We would be glad to meet with you in our sales room and, based on more concrete information, to offer you several more suitable variations.

Question: How many knots should a fine Persian carpet have per inch?
Answer: In Iran, the knots were originally calculated by the old Persian measure of the "zadeh", which is roughly 6.7 cm, in China what is counted is not the knots but the lines, for the Gabbeh carpets of Persia nothing is counted, and using the metric system, as in Europe, we count the thickness of weave per m2. A good Persian carpet begins at 200,000 knots./m2, 500,000 knots./m2 is excellent work, the best Nains have 1,000,000 knots./m2, a silk Qom has 1.5 mil. knots./m2, and our thickest carpet from Qom (of course, of silk) has a thickness of 2.9 mil. knots/m2. Such carpets, understandably, are very few in number. The number of knots per m2 is also determined by the quality of the wool and the dye. In a carpet which is woven for over 10 years, it would hardly occur to its makers to use cheap, poor-quality wool, or cheap natural dyes like indigo.

Question: What are "chintamani"?
Answer: These are the three pearls symbolising Buddhist philosophy: the first pearl is Buddha, the second is dharma (Buddha's teachings, the order of things),the third is sangha (the community or society of those acknowledging Buddha's teachings).

Tibetans add below the three pearls two waves - stripes from the back of the tiger (as a symbol of order, power, organisation). In Turkey, the same symbol is used as a talisman against the evil eye or ill-natured spirits.