Carpets in Western Europe During the Renaissance

Carpets in Western Europe During the Renaissance
Links to photos of extant 15th-17th century carpets, as well as depictions of carpets in 15th and 16th century artwork. I am not sure whose work this is but it is a very useful list of links with brief annotation. At the risk of sounding prideful I love it when I see someone take some of my work and make it part of a greater work. Take for instance a little article of mine that they included, Domenico Ghirlandaio' s Saint Jerome. I had forgotten that I wrote it and then I find it as a link on someone else's page. It is nothing particularly important but I concluded that Domenico Ghirlandaio used the same rug in Domenico Ghirlandaio' s Saint Jerome and Domenico Ghirlandaio Madonna Enthroned mid 15th century and I wrote about it in Domenico Ghirlandaio and his Rugs.

It is nice to have my massive ego assuaged for the day.

My most popular page on SpongoBongo

My main page is always my most popular but Persian Rugs the O'Connell Guides is my second ,most popular. I was interested in the key words that brought readers to that page. The top 10 searches terms that brought people to that page are:"Kerman rugs", "rug appraisal", "spongobongo.com", "hamadan", "kasak rugs", "persian isfahan rug", "chahal shotur", "gabbeh iran persian", "cartouches on persian carpets", and "kashan rug".

RTAMs at the Textile Museum and Howe's blog

Just today I was speaking with Cynthia Kosciuczyk who is the manager of 4th Avenue Rug Gallery in San Diego. Cynthia was telling me what a fan she is of the Textile Museum . I had to ask her if she reads John Howe's blog and she was not aware of it. John is a humble guy who puts in countless hours of selfless work to help a wider audience to get more out of the Textile Museum programs. It is well worth visiting John's site. Take a look at John's 18th and 19th Century Anatolian Carpets: Keshishian and Seidman. It is a useful and artistic article. John added a small note, "Harold has said to me, recently, that the extent and excellence of Michael Seidman’s preparation for this session is not adequately recognized in what we have said above and this comment is an effort to correct that." What is the value of a Seidman and Keshishian presentation? No record, no transcripts, no video, virtually no record at all without John. I have documented a few and John is off to a good start documenting more and that is good. Still for the handful available on-line there are more than 30 years of RTAMS lost and gone for ever. 30 years of guys like Keshishian, Seidman, Wendel Swan, John Wertime, Steve Price, Zimmerman, Charlie Ellis, Ulrich Schurmann, and so many other. Still the Textile Museum is a wonderful place and Bruce Baganz and the rest of the board are great guys doing so much with very little. Maybe a good first step if you really value the Textile Museum is to Join, Renew, or just Write them a Check.

Here are some odds and ends from my site: Long time Trustee John Sommer on Kyrgyz felt at the TM

HK's "Rug Morning" The Introduction

HK's "Rug Morning" The Persian Collection

HK's "Rug Morning" Explosion of Red

HK's "Rug Morning" The Mediterranean Collection

HK's "Rug Morning" Parting Shots

Color and Authenicity in Oriental Rugs

Harold Keshishian always used to tell me that the three most important things about a rug is color, color, and color. No doubt color is king but with ethnographic textiles context is important as well. I am reminded of this by the mafrash to the left and it brought to mind another piece. Wertime has an unusual piece; Rare Shahsavan Band in the John Wertime Collection. It is an intact 22 foot band which in itself a little longer than average for a pack band. The unusual part is the detail combined with pristine condition. The Shahsavan like the Turkmen both use trellised domed tent. Not surprising since the Shahsavan are primarily Northern Azeri which is a branch of the same ethno-linguistic group as the Turkmen of Turkmenistan. Tent bands are typically around 45 feet since the average trellised domed tent or yurt is 45 foot in circumference and 12 foot across. Pack bands are typically 12 to 20 feet so this one is slightly longer than average but not nearly long enough to be a tent band. I was struck by this mafrash from John Wertime as I looked at it again. The color is superb, the structure is less common (weft-float brocade) it dates to the second half 19th century and it is an intact mafrash. All these things make it very special. Karabagh Mafrash Complete Bedding Bag Weft Float Brocade from John Wertime

On the dating of Oriental Rugs:

Circa 1656 Tekke Juval

On the dating of Rugs:

“They can't all have been made in 1875, some must be older.” This bon mot from Harold Keshishian is as true today as the day he said it. For a number of reasons if a rug looks old dealers or auction houses have traditionally dated it to circa 1875. This is mainly because if a rug later is shown to have a chemical dye it is within the range where a chemical dye could have been used. So it is a safe attribution and a huge number of rugs got assigned an attribution of circa 1875. But in that group some are newer and conversely some must be older. We have reached a point where there are a growing number of rugs that considerably predate 1875.

Pioneering work by Jim Allen working with the Metropolitan Museum of Art as well as that of Dr. Jurg Rageth, c14 (radio carbon dating) became a tool in carpet studies. A growing number of rugs have been dated significantly earlier than 1800 and each discovery makes it possible to date other rugs in the time frame that at one point was thought impossible.

Once Jim Allen's 17th century Tekke Juval was dated Circa 1656 it made it possible for others to suggest a rug was of a certain date in relationship to other rugs. It has become what I call a marker rug. Since as far as I know it is the oldest Tekke weaving to date it allows people to use it as a marker in dating their Tekke weaving. More to come...

WSJ - Charles Mussallem backs McCain to the Limit

Bush donors giving for the first time in the 2008 presidential election represent about 9% of Sen. McCain's total receipts in the first two months of the year.

"We wanted to see what shook out of the race," said Charles Mussallem of Jacksonville, Fla., a Bush 2004 donor who gave the $2,300 maximum allowed donation to Sen. McCain in January, as did his brother. "The good money was not bet on him initially."

Mr. Mussallem owns art galleries in Florida and Arizona that sell oriental rugs and decorative objects, and he and his brother know Sen. McCain personally. "We told him if he got out of New Hampshire, we would look at supporting him," Mr. Mussallem said. "He did."

Sen. McCain also lags far behind his Democratic rivals in total funds raised as Democrats eager to take back the White House have been turning out in much higher numbers than Republicans to vote in this year's primary elections.

From the start of his campaign through the end of February, the Arizona senator had raised $63 million for the primary election, and at the end of February had only $4.5 million left in the bank. He also reported large debts that his campaign says were mostly settled in March after he repaid a $4 million bank loan.

By comparison, Sen. Obama had raised $190 million through February for his primary bid, much of it through the Internet. Sen. Clinton had raised nearly $152 million through February for the primary, including her $5 million personal loan to her campaign.

Sen. McCain is beginning to get support from former Republican rivals in addition to former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who dropped out of the race on Jan. 30.

Supporters of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney gave Sen. McCain $620,000 in February and $317,000 in January, before it was clear that Mr. Romney wouldn't win. Backers of ex-Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee gave Sen. McCain $354,000 in February and $138,000 in January, the analysis shows. Mr. Thompson left the race on Jan. 22.

Mr. Romney, who has said publicly that he would be interested in becoming Mr. McCain's vice president since dropping out Feb. 7, has had less time to swing his network behind Sen. McCain, though he has said he will do so.

The money Sen. McCain is raising now will mostly be used to finance his campaign through the summer, up until the Republican nominating convention in September. Some questions remain about whether Sen. McCain can legally withdraw from a public financing program for his campaign and continue to spend money over the summer above limits imposed by the public system.

Sen. McCain is in the tricky position of trying to avoid the fate of his former Senate colleague and the 1996 Republican nominee, Bob Dole of Kansas.

Sen. Dole nearly fell "off the public radar screen because he didn't have the resources to maintain a robust campaign" in the summer of 1996, and he lost to Bill Clinton, said Washington lobbyist Dirk Van Dongen, a former Giuliani fund raiser who is now backing Sen. McCain.

Write to Mary Jacoby at mary.jacoby@wsj.com

NY Historical Society Exhibit Explores Exotic Oriental Rugs And Textiles

Mar 25th, 2008

A camel knee pad demonstrates the highly specialized functions of weavings in the Turkmen society, which inhabited a swath of territory from Central Asia to Syria. This is one of a pair, woven by a young Turkman woman in preparation for her wedding. They would have been tied around the knees of the camel that carried her in her bridal procession.

New York City

:Dozens of dazzling Oriental rugs and textiles will be the centerpiece of "Woven Splendor from Timbuktu to Tibet: Exotic Rugs and Textiles from New York Collectors," a major New-York Historical Society exhibition examining the history of the Oriental rug in New York and the story of the Hajji Baba Club — the nation's oldest and most prestigious rug collecting club — which is celebrating its 75th anniversary. The exhibit opens Friday, April 11, and runs through August 17.

"Woven Splendor" will feature more than 100 objects belonging to current and past Hajji Baba Club members, as well as those currently in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Textile Museum of Washington, D.C., and other public institutions. Textiles in the exhibition originate from China and Southeast Asia, through India, Tibet, Central Asia, and the Islamic Near East, to Africa and Moorish Spain, and include costumes, tapestries, carpets, rugs and decorative pieces crafted between the Fifteenth and Twentieth Centuries.

"Woven Splendor" takes a groundbreaking approach by highlighting the diverse functions of carpets and textiles. The study of the function and complex iconography of these colorful woven articles offers a revealing window into the lives, beliefs and events that have shaped the cultures of the peoples within these regions.

Instructional sections throughout the exhibition also explore how rugs were produced in their countries of origin. The exhibition also chronicles the history of Hajji Baba Club, while examining the history of the Oriental rug in New York and how Western understanding of this kind of textile has changed over the years.

This Central Asian Nineteenth Century velvet ikat silk robe is made from yarn that was dyed in stages in a painstaking process that produces a cloth of astonishing color. European travelers marveled at the vibrant colors and intricate patterns on display as part of everyday garb in what is modern day Uzbekistan.

The exhibit also includes an introductory area on the types of courtly carpets collected at the beginning of the Twentieth Century, with photographs of how they were displayed at the time in the homes of such families as the Tiffanys, Vanderbilts and Havemeyers. Other images reveal how these objects were originally made available through galleries and World's Fairs.

"Woven Splendor" is curated by Dr Jon Thompson, author and director of the Beattie Carpet Archive, Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford. He is an authority on carpets and textiles of the Islamic world and, with Thomas J. Farnham, has produced a companion catalog to the exhibition titled Timbuktu to Tibet; Exotic Rugs and Textiles from New York Collectors (Hali Publications Limited, London).

A companion installation, "Orientalism in New York," serves as a prelude to "Woven Splendor," providing historical context by examining the fashion for Orientalism in New York during the late Nineteenth Century. Through paintings, prints, photographs and books, as well as silver, lighting, and metalwork — most from the historical society's collections — the exhibit explores New Yorkers' fascination with the "Orient."

The New-York Historical Society is at 170 Central Park West, between 76 and 77th Streets. For information, www.nyhistory.org or 212-873-3400.