CONTENTS ISSUE 157 AUTUMN 2008
124Chinese ceramic masterpieces in Stockholm
68Our second in-depth survey of the MIAQ collection in Dohar
127Diverse African textiles at the Met
FRONTLINES
LETTERS Matters arising from HALI 156; remembering Karel Weijand, Paddy Baker and
Basha Ahamed
23
NEWS The Met appoints tapestry curator Thomas Campbell as its new CEO; Carpet Judaica
at Sotheby’s New York; LACMA’s Indonesian Textiles Symposium; ICOC 2010 for Stockholm 25 POSTCARD Anthony Hazeldine travelled to Armenia with Mehmet ÇÇetinkaya 28 PROFILE Jonathan Hope on Rudolf Smend, founder of Cologne’s Galerie Smend,
well-known for his collection of 19th and early 20th century Javanese batik
34
BENCHMARKS In which ‘experts’ identify key attributes of good rugs and textiles 37 FROM THE ARCHIVE Thomas Wild explores the life and work of Hans Bidder 41 SPECIAL REPORT The emerging market for antique tribal weavings 49
FEATURES
LOST IN TRANSYLVANIA
JUDITH GLASS
A lively first-hand account of a recent tour of Romanian Transylvania in which the author
describes the group’s experiences in the search for elusive ‘Transylvanian’ rugs
65
A MUSEUM OF MASTERPIECES
Part Two: Iberian & East Mediterranean Carpets in the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha
68
MICHAEL FRANSES
In the second of our in-depth surveys of the Doha collection, the author examines the historical
Spanish carpets and those from Egypt and Syria in the Emirate of Qatar’s new Museum
UNUSUALLY ANATOLIAN
78
RALPH KAFFEL
A personal selection of Anatolian village pile rugs, prayer rugs, and yastıks, all of which have
unusual, even one-off, designs that represent the lyricism of the best village weavings
TAPESTRIES OF TRIUMPH
88
SIMON FRANSES
Two splendid Delft tapestries, one from a recent dealer’s exhibition, the other in the
Rijkmuseum, Amsterdam, which portray the story of King David and give clues about the
country’s political history
INDONESIAN TEXTILES AT LACMA
92
SHARON TAKEDA, MICHAEL GOVEN & MARY KAHLENBERG
A historical overview of Indonesian textiles at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, in the
light of its proposed acquisition of the Kahlenberg Collection, which has provided the occasion
for a major exhibition and symposium
THE CLOTH FROM BONDOUKOU 98
DUNCAN CLARKE
A focus on the distinctive narrow-strip traditional cloths from the Ghana/Côôte d’Ivoire border
region, which in recent years have begun to appear in the market in the Ghanaian capital, Accra
CONTEXT
EXHIBITIONS Chinese ceramic masterpieces in ‘Blavitt’ at Stockholm’s Medelhavsmuseet;
‘The Essential Art of African Textiles: Design Without End’ at the Met; parallel events in Milan
that centre around an important 16th century Safavid carpet 124 CALENDAR Auctions, exhibitions, fairs and conferences worldwide 136 AUCTION PRICE GUIDE Recent sales in New York, Boston, Stuttgart and Wiesbaden 141 BOOKS James Opie reviews Jon Thompson’s Timbuktu to Tibet: Exotic Rugs & Textiles from
New York Collectors;HALI’s Executive Editor Daniel Shaffer welcomes Gary A. Wisdom’sBaluch
Tribal Weavings; Jonathan Hope on The Art of Indonesian Textilesby Brigitte Khan Majlis 154 PARTING SHOTS Armenia to Aschach via Transylvania and Santa Fe 163 FIRST VIEW A little seen and rarely published Mughal fragment 164
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