L.A. Rug Expert Brian Morehouse weighes in on 18th Century Anatolian Turkmen

L.A. Rug Expert Brian Morehouse weighes in on 18th Century Anatolian Turkmen The level of discourse on Turkotek certainly has gone up a notch or two since Jim Allen started his 18th Century Anatolian Turkmen thread. Now L.A. Rug Expert Brian Morehouse has jumped into the discussion with both feet. Brian has come out with a variation of the old, Turkish Rugs are Armenian rugs, argument. Brian Morehouse wrote: "I cannot for the life of me see why anyone given current scholarship would still adhere to the Turkmen genesis for Anatolian Rugs. Do people really believe that Anatolian weaving traditions languished for thousands of years until the arrival of the Turkmen…..nonsense? Or that the Kurds or Armenians were not privy to the technology of pile weaving....nonsense! Clearly over a thousand years had passed from the time of the Greco-Romans and almost that long under Byzantine rule."

I was reading Kurt Erdmann's "700 years of Oriental Carpets" this afternoon and Erdmann made the point that there were Turkmen, Armenians, and Greeks. In fact he quoted Marco Polo in support of this. So as I read this Brian Morehouse's argument flashed through my mind and I realized that if we eliminate the Turkmen then all we have left are Greeks, Kurds, and Armenians. So were the Greeks weaving Brian's thousands of years of rug? If Greeks wove rugs why don't Greeks weave rugs. Are we to believe that Greeks wove for thousands of years and then fled the Turks and forgot. Nope, not likely in my book. So that leaves the Armenians and the Kurds. Now the Kurds are Eastern Anatolian. If Brian wants to attribute western and central Anatolian rugs to the Kurds then he is going to have to deal with the Turkotek Kurdish rug YO Michael Wendorf and his Kurdish heartland mandate.

So following the Morehouse argument that leaves the Armenians. I always suspected that some Central Anatolian rugs were Armenians but All of them? Keep tuned to Jim Allen's 18th Century Anatolian Turkmen thread for the latest in Internet rug scholarship.

Highest Prices Paid for Oriental Rugs

Rug Rag has a fun piece on the Highest Prices Paid for Oriental Rugs One of the rugs is a Chelaberd Kazak sold by Freeman's Auctioneers in PA at a hammer price of $341,625. A nice rug but not the type to typically bring over $10,000 a square foot. What then made this rug special?
It was from the estate of Robert Montgomery Scott. It had belonged to his mother Helen Hope Montgomery Scott who was the famous society beauty who inspired two major motion pictures. In one she was played by (The Philadelphia Story) Katherine Hepburn and in the other (High Society ) by Grace Kelly. And now you know the rest of the story as Paul Harvey says.

Tschebull Antique Carpets Going Out of Business

Tschebull Antique Carpets to Close
Raul "Mike" Tschebull's Tschebull Antique Carpets Collection, Darien, Connecticut will close and inventory will be sold at auction. More to come...

Turkmen Bags a Salor juval and some Ersari bags

While I was looking at Ersari rugs i spotted Salor Juval 9 Gul C 1800 RB Lot 167. My old buddy Jim Allen wrote Perspective in Classical Turkoman Weaving. It is well worth reading hen you look at this Juval. Jim is a frequent contributor on a rug discussion site and it can be rather humorous at times because Jim is way over their heads when he gets going.

I discussed an Ersari Torba with Mark Keshishian former President of ORRA and he suggested a Yomud influence to Diamond Guls with latchhooks. That made me think and I immediately saw the triparate device in the outer border. This triparate device is most commonly seen in Yomud weaving and I recognize it most commonly from Yomud Ensis. Ersari Torba Yomud Influenced 20th C Sotheby's Lot 695. I also added these to the notes; Ersari bag-face Border Design C 1900 Sotheby's Lot 41, Ersari Juval, W Turkestan, circa 1880 Sotheby's Lot 36, Ersari Juval, W Turkestan, 2nd half 19th Sotheby's Lot 47, and Ersari Juval Serrated Rosettes Afghanistan Circa 1880 Sotheby's Lot 845

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