The Encyclopedia features 600 entries covering global carpet production, with 850 carpets illustrated in colour. These include arguably the most famous Persian carpet, the Ardebil Safavid carpet at the V&A; and the world's most expensive carpet, another Safavid example, which was auctioned for more than $33 million in 2013.
As the author writes in his preface, the Encyclopedia contains "a much larger corpus of sources and images than any other book previously published [on this subject]... There is no comparable book available and there is no prospect of another similar." The only potentially comparable work is Oriental Rugs, by Peter F Stone, though Stone's book has shorter, dictionary-style entries, and lower-resolution images. By contrast, the Encyclopedia is much more extensive (over 600 pages), and has higher-quality photographs.
Oriental Rugs & Carpets: A Comprehensive Study (by Arthur Urbane Dilley) was one of the first histories of oriental rugs in English. Oriental Rugs: A Comprehensive Guide (by Murray L Eiland) is an excellent modern history of the subject. (The second edition has additional coverage of Indian rugs, and better illustrations.) A History of Textile Art (by Agnes Geijer, illustrated in black and white) and 5,000 Years Of Textiles (a definitive study, edited by Jennifer Harris) are general historical surveys of textiles.