The RUG Index
Appraisal Standard

Certified appraisals use city-specific and workshop-specific origin keys from The RUG Index's 102-entry origin table — expand a region group above to see every entry and its multiplier; the range column is each group's span. The appraiser's attribution determination is the authoritative input.

Basis — every entry in this table is recorded at reference (carried from published reference works and trade practice; no in-house study stands behind the figure), adopted in Standard v2.1. A figure revised against recorded market evidence is published here with its basis and the number of observations behind it.

For a collector piece, age stands for the scarcity of a weaving tradition that has ended. The table below is unchanged from earlier versions of this Standard, and it is the table applied to every appraisal whose origin class is collector or not assessed.

For a commercial-export piece, age stands for wear rather than scarcity: the type was made in quantity, survives in quantity, and competes against current production of the same appearance. It carries no antiquity premium.

Some weaving centres produced for two very different markets under one name. Where that is so, the appraiser records which one the piece belongs to, and that determination — not the origin alone — decides which age table above applies.

The question is asked for 26 origins where a collector type and a commercial-export type are known by the same name: Sarouk, Kerman, Kashan, Tabriz, Heriz, Hamadan, Sultanabad / Arak, Bijar, Nain, Isfahan, Qom/Qum, Khorasan / Mashad, Malayer, Art Deco Chinese, Peking / Beijing, Ningxia, Agra, Oushak/Ushak, Bukhara / Bokhara, Peshawar / Ziegler, Afghan / Ziegler, Kashmir (Hand-knotted), Indo-Persian, Indo-Tabriz, Indo-Kashan, Antique Chinese. For every other origin the published multiplier already describes one market, and no class is recorded. The commercial parameters are recorded at basis committee, adopted in Standard v2.3, and are in force.

The appraiser grades the documentary trail behind the piece on the six-level scale below and states the evidence the grade rests on. The grade is printed on the report next to the ownership history. It is a record of what is known, not a factor in the formula.

Provenance is graded P0–P5 and recorded on the report; it carries no multiplier. At P3 and above it may support a documented appraiser adjustment, recorded with its size and reason. P5 flags the report for exceptional review. Each pillar row of the report also states its evidence basis: verified, attributed, or owner-reported.

The appraiser assigns the condition grade from the submitted photographs against the published criteria below, considering pile wear, structural integrity, repairs, staining, fading, and other observable factors. Any override of the derived grade is recorded with a reason and printed on the report.

Since Standard v2.2 condition is recorded as two things. The Damage Grade is the A–F scale above, unchanged. Originality records later intervention on a ten-item checklist, each item none, minor or significant with an optional area estimate; it starts at 100 and takes the published deduction per item and severity, floored at 0. It carries no multiplier — it is recorded and printed with the items marked.

Deductions: basis committee · adopted in Standard v2.2.

The appraiser may override the derived figure by at most ±10 points, with a recorded reason. Reports issued before v2.2 print “originality not assessed (pre-v2.2)”. Originality (reweaving, patching, reduction and other later intervention) is assessed only in a Certified Appraisal; the Snapshot does not record it.

Collector-class rule. For the origins tagged collector-class (31 keys: tribal, Caucasian, Turkmen and antique-only), originality below 85 makes the “originality” reason available for a documented value adjustment; the adjustment itself follows the same bound and co-signature rules as every other adjustment.

Note: The self-serve Valuation Snapshot tool uses a structured damage selector (10 damage categories with severity levels) to derive a condition grade. See the Valuation Snapshot Methodology for details.

Knot density is scored relative to the classification: where an origin has a published expected KPSI range, the rug's count is placed as a percentile within that range and the craftsmanship adjustment below replaces the universal band multiplier (the multiplier applied is 1 + adjustment).

Linear between the published points; the percentile is clamped to 0–1. A count below 0.6 times the low bound or above 1.4 times the high bound still receives the clamped adjustment but raises a classification mismatch: a Certified Appraisal is not issued until the appraiser confirms the classification, corrects the count, or corrects the origin, with a recorded reason; the Valuation Snapshot outputs no number for that combination.

Flag for review. An origin with no published range is scored on the universal scale above and the report states: “knot density assessed on the universal scale pending classification range.”

The Snapshot form takes a KPSI band; when no count is entered the band's representative value stands in: museum 800 · very_fine 600 · fine 300 · medium 140 · coarse 40.

38 of 106 origin keys carry a published range; the rest are flag for review until a range is adopted. The range, its basis and the Standard version it was adopted in are frozen on every issued report.