or break through and steal, as may be
paraphrased from the Scriptures. The criminal indictment against the moth
in this regard cannot be drawn too strongly. He is the collector's great
enemy, because he destroys. Age and even wear only ripen the perfections
of fine modern pieces. Carpets and rugs stored, or laid aside, are not
mothproof, wherever they may be; unless they are treated as in the great
wholesale houses, where they are lifted and moved once a week and
protected with the odorous moth-ball.

When rugs have to be moved and packed frequently they should be folded
differently each time, and not always in the same creases. Otherwise,
wear and tear will soon show in the folds. For many obvious reasons they
always should be folded away with the nap inside.

Experience should teach the collector to appreciate and care for all fine
examples which he may already have. There are few others to take their
places. "Going! going! going!" has been said of them too often. Time, as
auctioneer, now says of them, as of old Chinese porcelains, "Gone!" And
that they should be even rarer than old china is quite understandable. The
ravages of time deal more gently with porcelains than with rugs. Only
breakage, not wear, moth, and abuse affects the former; and it is
generally guarded in glass cases and dusted by the mistress herself. Your
rugs are neglected, or left to the gardener's heroic care and treatment.
Use and abuse encroach upon the ends and edges of a glorious old
masterpiece, and ere it is too late, it becomes but "a king of shreds and
patches."

If there were new rugs to take its place, we might say: "The King is dead.
Long live the King!" But there are no new ones worthy of succession. The
royal line is virtually extinct.

INDEX

Index

Afghan rugs, 82
" " , modern, mineral dyes in, 83

Anatolian rugs, 73
" , commercial term, 73
" mats, 73, 74

Angles, mystery of, 2
" , use of, 62

Angular ornamentation, 96, 121

Antique carpets, 94
" rugs, not to be had, 6
" " , term abused, 43
" " , tones of imitated, 81
" " , valuable for design, 44

Arabian digits illustrated, 124

"Arabic figures," miscalled, 124

Arabic language, 122
" " , catholicity of, 122, 123

Armenians, appreciation of, 3
" , as dealers, 113
" hoard Anatolian mats, 74

Auction, arguments for, 107, 1