GUEST: In 2019, I was in San Antonio, and there was an auction house I used to go to.

I, I love rugs, I have several rugs at home.

This one came up for sale, and I really enjoyed the motion in it.

It was wool and, I believe, goat hair.

APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.

GUEST: So I just really liked the colors.

I think I paid about $100.

APPRAISER: Wonderful-- do you have any idea what type of rug it was or where it came from?

GUEST: No, and I do have, uh, a gentleman here in St.

Louis that I do take rugs to, and he had no idea... APPRAISER: Okay.

GUEST: ...of its history or background.

APPRAISER: All right.

This rug was woven by the Qashqai tribe in the Zagros Mountains in Southern Persia.

So technically, it's a tribal rug.

It's referred to as a gabbeh, and "gabbeh" in Persian translates to raw, uncut, and natural.

It's raw because they're using natural wool for the majority of the wool.

It's not heavily dyed.

Uncut would refer to the pile.

It kind of has a shaggy, long pile to it.

And that's also related to the weave quality, it's rather coarse.

This rug is maybe about 50 knots per square inch, or less.

So it would make it one of the coarser Persian rugs that are woven.

As this rug is a tribal rug, they didn't have a large supply of wool when they were weaving it, so they used different dye lots of wool.

And as you can see, there's a line over here of demarcation where the brown color is slightly lighter and slightly darker.

This is a term that's referred to as abrash-- it's natural.

Especially in nomadic pieces, you tend to see that occurring.

The value of these rugs really is in their pattern.

These abstract geometric designs are very bold and graphic, and they're very popular-- they always have been.

This one was woven around 1940, and with the resurgence of contemporary design, they became very popular in the late '90s up until the current day.

Most of these were small in size.

Naturally, there's a demand to get this aesthetic in room-sized pieces.

So, they started making modern reproductions of them in Iran, India, and Pakistan.

So this really is what set the whole wheel rolling in the first place.

Do you have any idea what this rug is worth?

GUEST: $100?

(both laugh) GUEST: I, uh... No, I have-- I have no, no idea.

APPRAISER: Okay.

It's really in fine condition, and, uh, this rug would retail for between $3,500 and $4,500.

GUEST: Oh, I did good.

APPRAISER: So, it's really wonderful.

GUEST: Thank you so much.