How to buy a Turkish Rug, on accident

Then we went in search of the Han or Ottoman traders lodge that was located in the center of the old market. We never made it. Along the way we met an older man who asked if we needed help. Since we didn't have a clue where the Han was, we accepted. Of course he took us first to his brother's shop. We walked up two flights of stairs to look at his carpets. He opened up his balcony which looked out directly across to the old mosque (see the first Izmir picture I posted). It was at that point he told us he was very happy and very hung over, as he had just become a grandfather (to a grandson no less) the night before and had more to drink that night than ever before in his life. He pulled out some carpets of styles we had never seen before, starting with some embroidered kilims (Jenean's favorites). He showed us an antique kilim that had Christian symbols of Noah's Ark, Mary's 5 pointed flower, the seven churches, the candle, and the Muslim spider. He then piled on more similar carpets, but Jenean and I were drawn to the first one.

Then he started bragging about some of his worldwide carpet exploits. He told us how he had bought 5 carpets in India for $15,000 and sold one of those 5 in Perth, Australia for 70,00o£. I told him that I would like to buy and sell Hareke and he said that he would show us top examples of Hareke. He pulled out a museum piece that could not be exported without a license, and then a 75 year old triple knotted (Turkish rugs are all doubled knotted except in on village in the northeast) silk on silk carpet. It was the most beautiful I'd ever seen. I was really very interested, but didn't think I'd have a chance since all of the silk on silk rugs we have seen have all been priced at above $10,000.

When I asked the price, first he told me the story of how he cam upon this particular rug. He'd had it hanging in his own office for about 12 years. He told us about the woman who had made the carpet when she was 16 years old. He went to a village for a friend's wedding, and since there are no hotels in this village (it was destroyed in an earthquake around 1999) he stayed at a very old woman's house. This woman had two sons, and one was living in Sweden as a political refugee because he is a socialist. She had this carpet on her wall, and he asked how much she would sell it for. She said that she wanted to sell everything she owned for $2,750.00 because that was the money she needed to be able to move to Sweden with her son. He refused to pay so little but they eventually agreed upon a price of $2850 for two carpets.

At this point his eyes went off in the distance and he said "You know, I was going to take this carpet to auction in Copenhagen this month, but I will sell it to you for $2000". That was an unbeatable offer but I still wanted to try my hand at bargaining. I offered $2500 for the Hareke and the kilim. He laughed and said he has never bargained with carpet sin his life, except with that old women when he tried to talk her into a higher price. But of course, he was still drunk and giddy so we settled between $2500-2800.