GUEST: My husband and I went to an auction in 1982. And it was very late in the afternoon and it was raining, and it was cold. And the auctioneer threw it on top of a bunch of blankets. And I started getting real nervous because I saw what it was. And then he said, "I'm going to put this beautiful oriental rug in with it." And it was one of those horrible souvenir things with buffalo on it. And I realized he had no idea that this was the oriental, so then I really got excited.

APPRAISER: What did it go for?

GUEST: Twelve dollars. But I was approached by the lady bidding against me and she bought the ugly buffaloes and gave me six dollars.

APPRAISER: So that reduced your cost to six dollars.

GUEST: That's right.

APPRAISER: The rug that we have here is a late 19th century Kuba. And it's a rug that was woven in the Caucasus, which is a mountainous region in southwestern Russia. And it's a beautiful example of this period. Well, these rugs are a very interesting tradition. They are a village rug and they spring from a design and a weaving tradition that goes back to the 17th century in Caucasian workshops. A couple things I want to point out. First of all, the colors on the back are much brighter than the front. And the pinkish color and the orange color are two synthetic dyes that they used in the late 19th century. And that helps us date it to the late 19th century. And you'll notice that the colors have faded on the front to a much softer pink and a much softer orange. It has some wear here and there, which could be easily restored. I think it's really a very good rug. I would say that after cleaning it-- which it is desperately in need of-- and doing a little bit of minor restoration, it would sell for between $3,000 and $3,500.

GUEST: That's very nice. Thank you.