Rug Encyclopedia · Identify Your Rug
Took a photo of a rug — in a showroom, a friend's home, or a listing — and want to know what it is and where to buy an authentic one like it? Here is how to read a rug the way a dealer does, how to tell a genuine hand-knotted piece from a machine-made copy, and how to find the real thing.
1. Start with the back
The single most useful test costs nothing: turn the rug over. On a genuine hand-knotted rug the design is clearly visible on the reverse, and the knots are slightly irregular because a person tied every one by hand. A machine-made rug shows a perfectly uniform, mechanical grid on the back — often with a fabric or latex backing glued over it. If you can see the pattern on the back, that is a very good sign it is hand-knotted.
2. Check the fringe and the knots
On a real hand-knotted rug the fringe is part of the rug itself — it is the warp threads the rug is woven on. If the fringe is sewn or glued on as a separate strip, the rug is machine-made. Part the pile and look at the base of the knots: hand-tied knots vary subtly, and a finer, denser knot count generally means a finer, more valuable rug. Our guide to knot count shows real back-of-rug comparisons.
3. Read the design and palette
The motifs and colors point to the weave. A few quick tells:
- Soft, open, luminous florals in muted ivory, gold and soft blue → likely an Oushak or Ziegler.
- Bold geometric medallions in bright reds, blues and ivory → likely a Kazak (Caucasian) rug.
- A fine, detailed central medallion with flowing florals → likely a Persian Tabriz or Kashan.
- An angular medallion in rust-red and indigo on a sturdy, durable rug → likely a Heriz.
- A repeating elephant-foot motif → a Bokhara; thick pile with simple tribal shapes → a Gabbeh; a plush diamond lattice → a Moroccan Berber.
Browse the full Rug Encyclopedia for a guide to each weave.
4. Real hand-knotted vs. machine-made “-style” rugs
This is the distinction that matters most. Big-box retailers sell enormous volumes of machine-made or printed “Oushak-style” and “Persian-style” rugs — woven by machine in hours, identical by the thousand. A genuine hand-knotted rug is tied knot by knot by a weaver over weeks or months, in real wool, and is one of a kind. It holds its value, lasts for generations, and can be cleaned and restored. Arteverk sells only the real thing, and we state the construction, origin and age honestly on every product page. Read the full comparison in our hand-knotted vs. machine-made guide.
5. Send us a photo — we’ll identify it
Not sure what you have, or want to find an authentic version of a rug you saw? Send Arteverk a clear photo of the front and the back. We are a Houston-based family of rug makers and curators who have worked in rugs since 1970, and we will tell you the likely weave, origin and whether it is hand-knotted — and help you find a genuine, one-of-a-kind piece in that style. See it in our Houston showroom or on a live video call, with free nationwide shipping.
Book a showroom or video viewingBrowse authentic hand-knotted rugs