We’d like to congratulate Elizabeth Delphy of Lafayette, lucky winner of the wonderful carpet pictured below!

…and the lucky winner.

During our September Anniversary Sale, customers put their names in a hat to win this living-room-sized Pakistani rendering of an historic carpet called the Portuguese Carpet.

The prototype of this carpet was woven in Persia about 300 years ago, apparently for the Portuguese court. Note the European boats and sailors in its four corners.

The US is expanding its embargo of Iranian goods to include Oriental carpets!

After September 30th, no new Persian rugs may be brought into the US. (In the world of Oriental rugs, Persian rug refers solely to those from Iran.) When the Persian carpets in this country are gone, they cannot be replaced

Persian carpets are arguably the best in the world, known especially for their lustrous wool and unmatched use of color. We at Emmett Eiland’s are especially keen on the new generation of Persian carpets woven with hand spun wool and natural dyes. We are terribly sorry to see them become unavailable, but, as long as we can’t help it, we will see them out in style.

While other dealers plan to raise prices on their stock of Persian carpets, during September we are offering them at the lowest prices you are likely ever to see.

During September, Every New Iranian Carpet is on SALE at 25% Off . . . while they Last!

Persian carpets are relatively expensive, but at 25% off, the best carpets in the world suddenly become affordable. This may literally be a once-in-a-lifetime chance to own a wonderful Persian rug . . . before they all disappear.

View our collection of Persian rugs.

Some of the best rugs we see these days are being woven in the small towns and villages of Afghanistan, a country that has seen war for half a century. We might ask ourselves: who are these people that not only find the courage to endure, but are capable of producing such profound works of artistic beauty?

Many people forget that the Afghans are a people of poetry and art — a people of tolerance and ingenuity whose unique traditions date back over a thousand years. While doing some research for a customer on the Hazara tribal weavers of the Bamyan region, I came across some photos that seemed to capture the beauty of the Afghan people in a way I had not thought possible.
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On June 5th Emmett Eiland’s hosted a Fundraiser party for Jefferson School, a local elementary school in northwest Berkeley. Not only was Mamas, Papas, and Tapas a blast (it featured live latin music, tapas and salsa dancing), but the silent auction raised over $20,000 for the school.

With state budget cuts in effect and more on the horizon, funding for schools like Jefferson is more important than ever. The money raised will help pay for Jefferson’s literacy program, after-school program scholarships, and PE supervision during recess.

“Without this event many such programs would have to be cut from our school,” reads the Jefferson PTA newsletter.

Emmett Eiland’s would like to thank everyone who attended this special event and made it such a success.

Hello from all of us at Emmett Eiland’s Oriental Rug Company. It is Spring once again and that means that soon our homes will be visited by moths – the kind that eat rugs. There are important ploys you can make to help prevent damage. One is to keep your rugs clean (moths prefer dirty rugs). Another is to control your moth population by deploying pheromone moth traps.

Not coincidentally, we are offering fresh pheromone moth traps for sale.

We hope you enjoy your Spring and the wonderful effects of a wet winter.

-Emmett, Natasha, Lew, Sylvette, Richard, Anthony, Jeff, Blair and Dave

Over the course of our September anniversary sale, we gave customers the opportunity to drop their name in hat, no purchase necessary, to win a fantastic dining-room-sized carpet.

We are pleased to announce the winner of the lovely 8′ x 10′9″ fine Pakistani Heriz rug: congratulations Janet Fitzgerald! We hope to see you soon to give you your new rug.

We asked a customer at random (pictured here, not Janet) to pick a name out of the “hat” to determine the lucky winner.

For years we recommended aerosol pesticides to control rug-eating moths. When we learned what aerosol pesticides to to our atmosphere we stopped using them. But for years afterwards we had a terrible time trying to stop moths from dining in the rug store.

Three years ago we tried a new approach — pheromone-bated insect traps especially designed for the moths that eat rugs. It became clear that we had solved a problem that bedevils Oriental rug businesses and anyone else who owns Oriental rugs or even wool sweaters. Last year Emmett and Natasha used them at home with excellent results.

As a customer service we now stock pheromone moth traps and if you have ever had problems with moths, we believe you should consider using them. They come in packs of ten and cost $99 per pack. One trap in each room with wool rugs or other vulnerable woolens should be enough. They can be placed in drawers, under or behind couches and cabinets or on shelves, especially in darkened areas that these moths prefer.

Unused traps may be used the following year if stored properly, bringing the cost for most people to less than $50 a year to prevent most damage to your Oriental rugs — without fouling the air with aerosol pesticides. We think that is very little to pay for year round, non-polluting protection.

The moths you would do well to worry about are tiny things, hardly noticable as they flutter about. Tineola Bisselliella, they’re called.

Carpet moths rarely cause trouble to rugs that are regularly walked on and vacuumed. So don’t worry needlessly.

On the other hand, they gravitate to dark, undisturbed places where they can eat in peace and often they cause really serious damage. They prefer rugs stored in places like basements and closets, but they will settle for Oriental rugs under sofas or beds or where rugs abut walls and are neither vacuumed or walked on and rarely disturbed. Often they chew away at the backs of rugs rather than their fronts.

Strangely, the carpet moth seems to prefer dirty rugs, often avoiding clean rugs.

If you’re interested in proactively protecting your rugs from moths, you might consider using pheromone carpet moth traps in your home.

Up close and personal with the carpet moth, Tineola Bisselliella

A: What you have is a Persian Sarouk from the late 1920s or early 1930s. The piece is very nice and has a somewhat unusual size. Most of these pieces were painted in New York when they came into the country. The American market wouldn’t support the “pinkish” color and the pieces were painted red by immigrant workers. This piece appears to be unpainted, which is also somewhat rare. I’d say that at retail here in this store we might sell this carpet for between $1500 and $1800.

But those of you who aren’t up for reading an entire novel on your computer screen (and I suspect that is most of you) will be interested to know that When a Dragon Winks is now available in paperback form.

Copies can be ordered from Amazon.com or Createspace.com.