On a recent morning in Brooklyn, Nathan Ursch was meticulously photographing a new inventory of vintage Berber carpets at his New York gallery.
A few dozen hand-picked pieces had just arrived from Morocco.
Mr Ursch, 49, knows his craft, ensuring the colourful, hand-woven carpets are sorted by tribes of origin, year of making and dimensions, before cataloguing them on the website of Breuckelen Berber, the fine vintage Moroccan carpets business he founded with his wife over a decade ago.
“The more I dig into the history of Berber carpets, the more fascinated and interested I become,” he says as sips on a glass of orange blossom-flavoured sparkling water. “They're a doorway to the past.”
Mr Ursch speaks about his passion for the woven art of Berber carpets, a craft and tradition passed on from generation to generation by the indigenous people of North and sub-Saharan Africa.
Berbers inhabited that part of the world for tens of thousands of years – predating the arrival of the Romans – and had their own language, Amazigh, which is still spoken by millions of people in Morocco and neighbouring Algeria.
“I don't just look at it as the Berber culture’s past. It's all of our past,” says Mr Ursch, who shares a lifelong passion for design and the decorative arts with Brin Reinhardt, his wife and business partner.
The idea for Breuckelen Berber started 12 years ago when the couple decided to buy Moroccan carpets for their own home.
The search led them to Morocco and time-frozen villages in the Atlas Mountains. There, they discovered the unique combination of tribal history and modernity found in Berber woven arts.
Some of the Berber tribes have lived in remote mountainous areas for centuries with minimal external influence on their traditions and way of life.
“They might have the influence of a cellphone or maybe a television here or there. But for the most part … they were left alone. And I think there's a purity to that,” Mr Ursch tells The National.
“I look at them and [think] this is where we came from. This is all of our history, and they are still weaving and placing their ideas into these carpets.”
Mr Ursch grew up in the Midwest, where his family had a huge collection of Oriental carpets.
His parents were antique dealers with his father specialising in Native American textiles, especially Navajo rugs and tribal chiefs’ blankets.
Moroccan carpets, however, were his “own discovery”, and his parents knew nothing about this particular woven art.
To find the best pieces of vintage Berber carpets, most of which were family-woven and owned, Mr Ursch relies on his expertise but also on a network of local pickers, dealers and collectors in Morocco.
The competition can sometimes be fierce.
He recalls one time when he came across six “museum-worthy” carpets that, in a matter of days, switched hands from dealer to dealer in one part of Morocco to the other.
“I just couldn’t live without them,” he says. “So, it didn’t matter what the price was any more. I paid it and chased them down.
“It took three months to get these six carpets, and finally they were mine.”
Prices of vintage Berber carpets depend on factors such as size, condition, age, rarity, dyes used and style of motifs.
They can retail between $500 and $7,500 based on condition, year of production and size. Museum quality and rare Berber carpets can range from $5,000 to $50,000 at premiere galleries, Mr Ursch says.
Breuckelen Berber’s customers are mainly in the US, but people all over the world show interest in vintage Moroccan carpets.
“I have a client in South Africa that I'm dealing with right now, and I have clients in Singapore, Hong Kong, Vancouver, London, Germany, Belgium, Spain,” Mr Ursch said.
For him, it is also a way of giving a new life to these old rugs, some of which belonged to nomadic tribes and travelled through mountain passes and deserts on camels and donkeys.
What is an ETF?
An exchange traded fund is a type of investment fund that can be traded quickly and easily, just like stocks and shares. They come with no upfront costs aside from your brokerage's dealing charges and annual fees, which are far lower than on traditional mutual investment funds. Charges are as low as 0.03 per cent on one of the very cheapest (and most popular), Vanguard S&P 500 ETF, with the maximum around 0.75 per cent.
There is no fund manager deciding which stocks and other assets to invest in, instead they passively track their chosen index, country, region or commodity, regardless of whether it goes up or down.
The first ETF was launched as recently as 1993, but the sector boasted $5.78 billion in assets under management at the end of September as inflows hit record highs, according to the latest figures from ETFGI, a leading independent research and consultancy firm.
There are thousands to choose from, with the five largest providers BlackRock’s iShares, Vanguard, State Street Global Advisers, Deutsche Bank X-trackers and Invesco PowerShares.
While the best-known track major indices such as MSCI World, the S&P 500 and FTSE 100, you can also invest in specific countries or regions, large, medium or small companies, government bonds, gold, crude oil, cocoa, water, carbon, cattle, corn futures, currency shifts or even a stock market crash.
UAE Rugby finals day
Games being played at The Sevens, Dubai
2pm, UAE Conference final
Dubai Tigers v Al Ain Amblers
4pm, UAE Premiership final
Abu Dhabi Harlequins v Jebel Ali Dragons
COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: BorrowMe (BorrowMe.com)
Date started: August 2021
Founder: Nour Sabri
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: E-commerce / Marketplace
Size: Two employees
Funding stage: Seed investment
Initial investment: $200,000
Investors: Amr Manaa (director, PwC Middle East)
MATCH INFO
Fixture: Thailand v UAE, Tuesday, 4pm (UAE)
TV: Abu Dhabi Sports
Asia Cup 2018 Qualifier
Sunday's results:
- UAE beat Malaysia by eight wickets
- Nepal beat Singapore by four wickets
- Oman v Hong Kong, no result
Tuesday fixtures:
- Malaysia v Singapore
- UAE v Oman
- Nepal v Hong Kong
Things Heard & Seen
Directed by: Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini
Starring: Amanda Seyfried, James Norton
2/5
What is a Ponzi scheme?
A fraudulent investment operation where the scammer provides fake reports and generates returns for old investors through money paid by new investors, rather than through ligitimate business activities.
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
How to apply for a drone permit
- Individuals must register on UAE Drone app or website using their UAE Pass
- Add all their personal details, including name, nationality, passport number, Emiratis ID, email and phone number
- Upload the training certificate from a centre accredited by the GCAA
- Submit their request
What are the regulations?
- Fly it within visual line of sight
- Never over populated areas
- Ensure maximum flying height of 400 feet (122 metres) above ground level is not crossed
- Users must avoid flying over restricted areas listed on the UAE Drone app
- Only fly the drone during the day, and never at night
- Should have a live feed of the drone flight
- Drones must weigh 5 kg or less
Tickets
Tickets start at Dh100 for adults, while children can enter free on the opening day. For more information, visit www.mubadalawtc.com.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Result
Qualifier: Islamabad United beat Karachi Kings by eight wickets
Fixtures
Tuesday, Lahore: Eliminator 1 - Peshawar Zalmi v Quetta Gladiators
Wednesday, Lahore: Eliminator 2 – Karachi Kings v Winner of Eliminator 1
Sunday, Karachi: Final – Islamabad United v Winner of Eliminator 2
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylturbo
Transmission: seven-speed DSG automatic
Power: 242bhp
Torque: 370Nm
Price: Dh136,814
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
THE DETAILS
Director: Milan Jhaveri
Producer: Emmay Entertainment and T-Series
Cast: John Abraham, Manoj Bajpayee
Rating: 2/5
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
MATCH INFO
Syria v Australia
2018 World Cup qualifying: Asia fourth round play-off first leg
Venue: Hang Jebat Stadium (Malacca, Malayisa)
Kick-off: Thursday, 4.30pm (UAE)
Watch: beIN Sports HD
* Second leg in Australia scheduled for October 10
Tell-tale signs of burnout
- loss of confidence and appetite
- irritability and emotional outbursts
- sadness
- persistent physical ailments such as headaches, frequent infections and fatigue
- substance abuse, such as smoking or drinking more
- impaired judgement
- excessive and continuous worrying
- irregular sleep patterns
Tips to help overcome burnout
Acknowledge how you are feeling by listening to your warning signs. Set boundaries and learn to say ‘no’
Do activities that you want to do as well as things you have to do
Undertake at least 30 minutes of exercise per day. It releases an abundance of feel-good hormones
Find your form of relaxation and make time for it each day e.g. soothing music, reading or mindful meditation
Sleep and wake at the same time every day, even if your sleep pattern was disrupted. Without enough sleep condition such as stress, anxiety and depression can thrive.
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
