A New Persian Rug Queen Reigns in Woodbury

A New Persian Rug Queen Reigns in Woodbury

By: Amy Mulvihill 08/19/2004
At Woodbury's Abrash Galleries, the maxim "everything old is new again" takes on new resonance.
The new store specializes in selling old treasures-antique, hand-woven Persian rugs-to new owners eager to own what proprietor Karen Reddington-Hughes calls "artwork you put on the floor instead of on the walls."
The store, which recently opened at 40 Main Street North, also sells a smattering of reproduction rugs, and hand-made limited edition furniture, and offers cleaning and repair services-but Ms. Reddington-Hughes' first love and priority will always be the rugs.
"I always loved rugs," she commented. "I thought selling rugs was very similar to selling artwork."
Despite this, Ms. Reddington-Hughes' tenure in the rug business wasn't scripted.
She landed in the rug business 10 years ago when she was sent as a freelance reporter to write a story about Woodbury's now defunct Hamrah Antique Rug Store.
In a town known for its many shops purveying a wide range of high-quality antiques, Hamrah's was something of an institution, and its owner, Claire Hamrah, was the sagacious leader who made what happened next seem like divine intervention.
Ms. Reddington-Hughes said that she and Ms. Hamrah clicked immediately, and the interview ended with a job offer from Ms. Hamrah.
"Claire said, 'Wherever you're working now, I want you to come work for me,'" Ms. Reddington-Hughes recalled, laughing. "I said, 'I don't know anything about rugs!' She said, 'You'll learn.'"
And she did.
Now, 10 years after that fateful interview, Ms. Reddington-Hughes commands her new space, easily and confidently offering facts about rug making materials and processes with rapidity and fluidity.
She acknowledges that her expertise is, in large part, due to Ms. Hamrah's tutelage.
"I was captivated by her knowledge," she said. "She was a wonderful mentor."
However, when Ms. Hamrah announced her retirement last year, Ms. Reddington-Hughes was confronted with the end of her adopted career and found herself with a choice to make.
"When the doors closed there [in March], I decided I was going to open my own store," she said.
She brings with her the expertise she accumulated at Hamrah's, and uses her trained eye to purchase the best quality inventory for her customers.
"When people are looking to purchase rugs, condition is the most important factor," she explained. "Intact borders are what you look for, and repairs should be rewoven into the fabric, not just painted on."
Especially important, she noted, is that the rugs she sells are made using vegetable dyes.
"Over in what was known as Persia and is now known as Iraq and Iran, they'd take pure wool and then vegetable dye it using extracts from native flora," she said.
For example, she pointed out that the yellows in a good quality rug are often made from saffron and the reds from pomegranate.
This is especially important, she said, because the vegetable dyes help the rug to maintain its integrity as it ages.
Ms. Reddington-Hughes explained that the vegetable dyes oxidize over the years, which prevents fading from sunlight.
"That way, rugs wear evenly and you can put furniture down wherever you want on it and not worry about having it fade unevenly," she noted.
This process by which the vegetable dyes subtly and uniformly shade over time, giving the rugs an almost three-dimensional look, is called Abrash, which was the inspiration behind the store's name.
Ms. Reddington-Hughes said that, so far, business has been good. She currently does a lot of business with designers, but stressed that she welcomes all types and levels of buyers to the store.
"The most helpful thing I can say to people trying to create a room is to build from the ground up," she remarked. "It's much easier to match a swatch of fabric to a rug than it is to match a rug to upholstery. Your rug is the foundation to build upon for your room."
For that reason, Ms. Reddington-Hughes said she tries to carry a range of rugs for all budgets. Prices for her rugs range from $150 to $45,000 for the most notable examples among her stock.
She conceded that antique rugs with the right pedigree are never inexpensive, but pointed out that "Oriental rugs last forever," and that, when compared to average costs for wall-to-wall carpeting, the expense isn't unreasonable.
"You're going to spend the same amount on a ... rug that you'd spend on wall-to-wall," she said. "And, you'll have that rug 15 years down the road, whereas you can't roll up that wall-to-wall and take it with you."
In addition to sales of rugs and rug cushions, Abrash Galleries offers services for those merely looking to spruce up an old rug rather than invest in a whole new one. Ms. Reddington-Hughes said she offers on-site appraisals and off-site repair and cleaning services.
The cleansing process uses lanolin soap to restore the rug's vitality, keeping it supple and thereby enhancing its value. Ideally, Ms. Reddington-Hughes said, rugs should be cleaned every five to six years.
Although the store is currently open for business from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, Ms. Reddington Hughes said she will be holding a three-day, grand opening event during the last weekend in September and is already looking forward to Christmas, when she and her husband will unveil the first in a series of specially made perfumes inspired by the fragrances of various notable Persian villages. The first, Shiraz, is to employ extracts from orange blossoms and roses.
No doubt, the scents will bear a striking resemblance to the sweet smell of success.
Abrash Galleries is located in the plaza at 40 Main Street North in Woodbury. The store can be reached by phone at 203-263-RUGS (7847) or by fax at 203-263-8299.