A good silk rug or is it a great silk Qum?

Recently Academy of Oriental Rugs associate Chris Howell sent me pictures of a rug that he had been called to work on. The rug is very special but how do we judge it.

This rug is a silk Qum and it measures 53.5 " x 86.5 (4 foot 7.5 inches by 7 foot 4.5 inches) which for working purposes we will round to 32 sqare feet.

When we look at the knot count I estimate it to be 624 knots per square inch. Which is a fine rug but not the finest but quite respectable. It is possible I underestimated it but with my poor old eyes I will wait to see if anyone comes up with a better KPSI count. 
So the silk and the knot count tell us this is at least a good silk Qum silk rug but is it a great silk Qum?

This rug is signed but sometimes the signature is significant and all too often the signature is of no consequence and has no effect in value. Fortunately Hamza Kanaan was able to translate it as Qum Mir Mahdi. At first I thought this rug might be by my friend Morteza Mirmehdia so I compared the signatures.

 Based on this I conclude this is not by the master Morteza Mirmehdi. One question is how do I know this is an auhentic Mir-Mehdi of Qum signature? Rather simple with this one since Morteza's daughter showed it to me in his presence on one of my trips to Iran. See my article:

Mirmehdi of Qum at Kish Carpet Festival 2005

So if it is not Mortza Mihmedhi then who? Actually this is not a bad thing. There are two Mirmehdi rug masters in Qum and the other is older and better known so his rugs sell for even more money.  So at this point the question is does this rug appear to be good enough to attributed to the elder Mirmehdi of Qum?

This picture is by far the most important in making the attribution. Please note the roses. Each rose is slightly different. This means instead of a master artist drawing one rose the master drew each rose separately. The artist is paid by the complexity of the design. So what we see in less expensive (less valuable) rugs we see what we call a repeat. A standard medallion Persian rug is a 4 part repeat meaning that each quarter of the rug is the same as the other three. Or as we see in a Turkmen rug where each Gul copies all the others. But not here. What we have is where every facet of the design is custom designed and represents far more work and far more cost in the preparation of design. This can only be achieved under the auspices and supervision of an Ustad or Master.

That being said this is not merely a good silk Qum rug it is a great Silk Qum rug. As such it must not only be judged as a rug but more than that this is clearly a Work of Art.Lacking any other reason and insight I must suggest that this is the work of the master the elder Mirmehdi of Qum and should be valued accordingly. 

I base this on my examination  of the images and the property and condition report of Academy of Oriental Rugs Associate Chris Howell.