John K. Atchley

I am a former US Foreign Service Officer with postings in Kenya, Nigeria, India, Mexico, Venezuela, El Salvador and Guatemala, as well as in the Department of State, Department of Commerce and the Office of the Governor in Michigan. I have been in real estate for the past 14 years. I bought my first rug, a small Tekke, in 1971 from a dealer in Nairobi, Kenya. Rugs were found there thanks mainly to a centuries old trade between the Persian Gulf and the East Coast of Africa driven by the annual swings in the monsoon winds. I have been collecting rugs ever since, though on a decidedly modest budget. I am a member of the Textile Museum and the International Hajji Baba Society in Washington DC, and live in Rockville, Maryland, a suburb just north of DC.