GB-Rugs history

GB-Rugs history begins in 1978 in a garage in Padua as a business dream in my head but no money in my pocket. My starting activity was not trading, but carpet cleaning. There was no web and not a lot of money; a couple of years later I had put together a nice list of shops and craftsmen who were sending their customers to me and there came a time I needed more staff. Among those I hired there was an Iranian who introduced me to the world of oriental rugs.

By that time, we are talking about the ’80s, the old place was no longer sufficient; I definitely had to find a   more suitable space. I decided to get a place somewhere else and thus was born the gallery in Padua , Prato della Valle, the largest square in Europe.

The shop was big enough for me to start thinking about selling carpets: it had four large windows so, at the front, I set up a carpet gallery while the girls, at the back of the shop all in line and visible from the street, restored carpets.

After about ten years, with on the one hand the laboratory and on the other the shop, it became hard to follow both and, in 2002.

GB-Rugs history changed again when I decided to turn them into one: I sold the laboratory and shop and bought the building in the industrial area, a short walk from the centre of town and from the Padova-east motorway exit, where we are still today. Customers would not have to look anymore for a place to park the car, I would not have to run anymore from one place to another because someone was waiting for me and the staff would be available, all in one place, without wasting time.

Our first website was put online in 2003 and I immediately realized that it was appreciated and that it was creating an ever-increasing number of customers, although the photographs were not that great.

Today, we are at the third website and a fourth one, updated and more customer-friendly, will soon be online. From a humble start in a garage, we now work and sell on a global scale.

Ancient Ciondzoresk Kazak, called “Cloudband Kazak”

a perfectly preserved kazak

a 1786 Shirvan Marasali in our Carpet collection

very rare, a real collectors’ treat.