A silk and cotton Ikat panel, probably Samarqand or Bukhara, Uzbekistan , second half 19th century

Mansour Heskia, born in Tehran in 1940, was renowned for his excellent eye and generosity with his knowledge. A member of BADA and an annual exhibitor at the Grosvenor House Antiques Fair, he ran a respected carpet business in London for nearly 40 years. Mansour was the third generation in his family to deal in carpets, his grandfather, Aziz, having started a carpet business in Tehran in 1877. By the 1940s Mansour’s father, also Aziz, was selling to diplomats, oilmen, businessmen and royalty. Mansour, educated in England in the 50s, established his business in Mount Street, Mayfair in the 1970's. Having inherited his father and grandfather’s keen eye for quality, reluctance to bargain and willingness to travel in order to find the finest quality pieces, he liked to judge them with his own eyes, once even taking Concord to New York to view a piece before a sale. Despite Mansour’s advancing years and ill health, he can still raise an eyebrow to a fine quality carpet.