Jafar Rouzati, an endearing, soft-spoken man, is sitting in a cramped office in his Wilmette store on north Green Bay Road discoursing with evident fervor on his personal passion and profession: oriental rugs. Listening to Mr. Rouzati discussing the handmade oriental rug and its essential components—the rug’s woof and warp, its unique design and color, the number of knots per square inch—one gets the impression one is listening to a museum curator. In fact, Mr. Rouzati is a curator de facto, one who, with nearly a glance, is able to identify a fabricated rug from an authentic creation; identify the rug’s country of origin; in many instances, even the remote village or tribe which produced it; when in time it was woven; and above all, the rug’s intrinsic value.

“Trust is the centerpiece of our business,” says Mr. Rouzati, a native of Isfahan, an ancient central Iranian city with a proud and storied history reaching back to the 10th century. “We have been in business for nearly three decades now and I dare say we have achieved that trust with our customers along the way because rugs are what we do. Rugs are what we know. Many of our customers, most from the North Shore, come to us through word of mouth.”