Istanbul Shopping Tour

No. Your guide is there to explain what you are looking at, to translate, and to tell you what a piece is worth before you decide — not to close a sale. Ask whatever you like, see as much as you want to see, and take a piece home only when you are sure of it. Nothing is decided for you and nothing is decided quickly, and your guide will tell you plainly if a piece is not worth what is being asked for it.

No. We accept no commission and no kickbacks from any vendor, on any tour, ever. Our guiding fee and our profit are agreed with you before you arrive, so there is nothing more for us to earn from your day and no reason to point you at one shop rather than another. It is also what lets your guide say plainly that a piece is not worth the asking price, which a guide on commission can never afford to say.

We work only with trusted companies and vendors, most of them firms we have known for years, and they quote you straight. The figure you hear at the start is the real one — you will never be shown an inflated price that suddenly falls away once you hesitate. Your guide will also tell you plainly what a piece should cost before the conversation begins, so you are never negotiating in the dark.

Yes, and shipping to your door is included by the dealers we introduce you to, so you do not carry a rug home in your luggage. They handle the packing, the export paperwork and the courier, and you are given tracking. Delivery to the USA, Canada, the UK and Australia is routine.

Two things, and they make an enormous difference. First, the dimensions of the space you want to fill — room size, or the length and width of the area the rug will sit in. Second, a photograph of the room on your phone, showing the floor, the light and the colors already in it. With those two things a good dealer can narrow hundreds of rugs down to a handful in minutes, and you will not get home to find the piece is the wrong scale.

Turkish rugs are woven with a double knot — the symmetrical knot, tied around two warp threads rather than one. It is slower to weave and it uses more wool, but it produces a denser, harder-wearing pile that holds its shape for generations. It is the reason antique Turkish rugs survive in the condition they do.

Yes, and this is one of the practical advantages of the double knot. Because each knot is tied around two threads and the pile is cut rather than looped, there is nothing for a claw to catch and pull loose. Turkish rugs stand up to cats and dogs far better than a looped or single-knotted pile, which is why they are a sensible choice for a family home rather than a museum piece to be roped off.

A suzani is a hand-embroidered textile from Central Asia — Uzbekistan and Tajikistan — traditionally stitched by the women of a family over years and given as part of a bride’s dowry, in bold medallions and flowering vines on a cotton or silk ground. They have reached Istanbul along the old trade routes for centuries, and the city remains one of the best places in the world to find a good antique one. Every piece is different. Collectors frame them or hang them, and we can take you to the dealers who handle them properly.

The gold itself is not — the metal trades on a world market and the price per gram is close to the same everywhere. What differs is the labor. In Istanbul the making charge, the workmanship that turns metal into a piece, is very reasonable by American or European standards, and the standard of the craft is high. So the value is in the making rather than the gold, which is also why a bespoke or custom setting is worth asking about here.

It is one of the country’s most popular exports and has been for a long time. Turkey has tanned and worked leather for centuries, and it is the tanning and the quality of the hide that separate a good jacket from an ordinary one. Alterations are usually quick, so a piece can be adjusted to fit you properly before you fly home.

Turkish tiles are fired hard and glazed to last, and they hold their color and pattern for years rather than fading or crazing the way softer decorative tiles can. The Iznik tradition they come from has survived on the walls of Istanbul’s mosques for four hundred years, which is a fair test of durability.

Yes. For guests furnishing a whole house, we can arrange a visit to a furniture workshop where you design and customize pieces — dimensions, timber, upholstery, finish — alongside the makers, including home decoration to match. They produce to your specification and ship to the USA. It is worth planning this in before you travel, so tell us at the inquiry stage.

Not at all. Some guests come to commission a large carpet or furnish a house, and others come for a set of colorful ceramic bowls or a single pair of earrings. The day is shaped around what you are hoping to find, whatever the scale of it.

The day is private, so it runs at your pace rather than to a fixed clock. Buying a carpet is not a quick transaction — it involves tea, conversation and seeing a great many pieces — and we would far rather you took your time over it than watched the hour. Tell us what you are hoping to find and we will shape the day around it.