State of the Rugdom?

[Filiberto Boncompagni]

Hi guys,

These days I find myself in a sort of 'retrospective' mood.

My first post here on Turkotek was in April 2000, almost twenty-two years ago. I remember at the time there was a vibrant activity on the internet and on the market concerning Oriental textiles.
Nowadays it all seems tuned-down. Including, unfortunately, the activity on our forum.

Well, being highly allergic to social media I don't know what is going on there. I know there are groups of discussions about Oriental rugs. How do they fare?

And I stopped years ago to have a look at the 'Rugs Market' (e-Bay, auctions, Internet dealers and so on), but I got the impression that the general interest for exotic textiles has evaporated a bit. And the prices went down.
Is that true? I'd like to know your opinion, please.

Last, but not least...

What happened to our most affectionate troll, Jack Cassin?
I used, perhaps once a year, to have a look at his 'RUG KAZBAH' website just for fun. I checked yesterday and I found that the domain name was up for sale.
His other website, wamri.com shows 'This domain has expired'.

You know? In all honesty, I feel sorry for him.

Filiberto

[Steve Price]

Hi Filiberto

Jack Cassin passed away. I've lost track of when, but it was probably a year or two ago. I was most surprised that he hadn't set aside funds to keep his "museum and research institute" on line.

Facebook has lots of rug sites, some pretty good and some awful. They all suffer from the fact that the Facebook format doesn't lend itself to detailed discussion. But, for whatever reason they have, most people prefer them.

I'm not buying anymore, so I'm very much out of the loop on what's going on in the marketplace.

Steve

[Filiberto Boncompagni]

Thanks, Steve, I suspected that he was dead.

He was a pain in the neck but he was part of the Rugdom anyway. A known quantity.
Again, I feel sorry for him.

R.I.P. Jack!

[Pierre Galafassi]

Bonjour Filiberto et Steve,

I do share your mood Filiberto.

IMHO the younger generations have lost their interest for antique objects. Not only rugs, but also furniture, jewels, wrist watches and many other 'collectors'.

This seems to be true for the kind of genuine but affordable antiques of the kind which middle class people used to purchase, especially during the first decades of their career .

In my (quite affluent-) region, the number of carpet-dealer shops and antiques shops has drastically decreased, in clear counter-tendency with the average standard of living.
I don't buy antiques any more, but I still do enjoy exploring antiques shops from time to time. Alas most of those I knew 20 or 30 years ago have disappeared, the owners of the few surviving ones do not seem to be bursting with joy and optimism and most are quite err... mature.

I have no idea whether 'museum-quality' pieces have been going the same way.

Nor whether this is only a fashion or the end of the line.

This mail is of course typical of an 'old fart' like me.
I hope the green horns will strongly disagree!!
Kind regards
Pierre.

[James Blanchard]

I have some observations, and a few ideas about future directions, and will engage once I find a bit of time. It's an interesting topic. Thanks for initiating, Filiberto.

James