In the rug world, rugs 100 years or older are considered antique.  Antique rugs, besides having the normal issues that woven rugs have, also tend to have delicate foundations due to age.  Care must be taken when washing these rugs.  If the rug is not structurally sound, low moisture cleaning options are available.

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Below is a Savonnerie rug from France - woven in the early 1800's. 

Savonnerie Rug

The below rug was woven in France and is a very expensive rug.   These rugs are rarely encountered in commercial rug cleaning plants.  This rug was brought to us by one of our customers.  This rug was larger (10'6" x 16') and structurally delicate.  The rug had pet urine issues, had many repairs, and was thread bare in many places.  The rug had pet odor as well as that "old wool smell".  A low moisture cleaning was not an option due to the pet urine problems.  The customer decided to move forward with a full submersion wash.  The results were fantastic and we got all the odor out of the rug!  Another very happy customer!