H A L I The International Magazine of Antique Carpet and Textile Art
Editor Daniel Shaffer Deputy Editor Jill Til den Assistant Editors Ben E v ans, Abigail M cCullough Editorial Assistant S an ia R ahm an Consultant Editors M ichael F ra n se s , R obert P in n e r Contributing Editors Ju l ia B a iley , A lberto Boralevi John C a rsw e ll, S teven Cohen Thom as Cole. Rosem ary Crill S u san Day. Donald D inw iddie Murray E i la n d J r , Anthony H az led in e R in a In d ie to r , R a lp h Kaffel A lan K ennedy, DeW itt Mallary John M ills, V anessa Moraga Thom as M urray. P enny Oakley C a r lo M aria Suriano, W endel Swan Parviz T anavoli, John W ertim e
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HALI 107
THE COVER Knotted pile r itu a l (?) carpet, possibly of west C entral Asian m anufacture from the te r r i to ry of modern Turkm enia. Achaemenid p e r io d , 5 th-4th century BC, calibra ted calendar age (95% confidence limit) of 383-332 BC (25.4% ) or 328-200 BC (74.6% ). U nearthed by the Russian archaeologist Sergei I. Rudenko in summer 1949 from the o u te r burial cham ber of kurgan (tomb) 5, Pazyryk Valley, n o r th east Altai region, S iberia. 1.83 x 2.00m (6'0" x 6'7"). Warp: wool, olive-ivory and b row n , Z2, strongly depressed; weft: wool, light b row n , Z1 and Z2, 2-4 shoots; knot: wool, symmetric, Z2S & Z3S; 65V x 65H (1:1) = 4 ,225/dm2 (ca. 272/in2), pile height 2mm; colours: 1 0 - 2 shades of purple-red (Z2S, Z3S), 3 shades o f brow n , light beige, d a rk blue (Z.3S), green-ldue, tu rquoise (Z2S), ivory (Z2S). The culture o f the builders and users o f th e Altai kurgans (who were not necessarily the m akers o f the bu r ie d a rte facts), has been identified as early steppe nomadic, of Scythian type with num erous local peculiarities, and given the name ‘Pazyryk*. State Hermitage Museum, St P e te rsburg, inv.no. 1687/94.
53 EDITORIAL
First thoughts on ICOC Italia —the best ever?
55 LETTERS
Feedback following Anne Rowe’s recent review ol Marla Mallett’s Woven Structures; sloppy vetting at Gothenburg; that reddish Turkmen tinge just won’t go away.
57 FRAGMENTS
LACMA's Ardabil carpet sets sail for conservation in England; a Bangkok textile forum; a Tuduc at auction or Queen Elizabeth's gift?; remembering Mark Zebrowski.
59 POSTCARD
Tom Murray’s first African encounter sees our hero facing extreme trials and reaping dramatic rewards.
64 FORUM
It is fifty years since the Pazyryk carpet was disentombed by Russian archaeologists in the frozen Altai Mountains. Ludmila Barkova, curator responsible for the Pazyryk finds at the Hermitage, reviews the current state of knowledge on the world’s oldest figural knotted pile rug.
70 MAGIC IN THE WEB
Donald King An exploration of the rich treasure chest of the V&A’s textile collections, published as a tribute to the museum’s former Keeper of Textiles, Donald King (1920-1998), whose account of a curator’s itinerary from ancient Egypt to industrial Britain is adapted from a lecture first presented at the 1989 CIETA assembly in Chicago.
86 THE INSIDE STORY
Russian Printed Cottons for the Central Asian Market, 1850-1950 Annie Carlano Uzbek ikats are the least shy and retiring of textiles, but the printed cloths used for lining robes and wall-hangings, such as those in the Goldman Collection, have attracted little serious attention. Here the author looks at the background to the synthesis of designs seen in Russian chintzes exported to Central Asia.
••Si- * £ ' i ‘-is-
90 NINGXIA LION-DOG CARPETS
Michael Franses et al. The auspicious figure of the lion has primary associations in Chinese art with guardianship. Under the Tang il became a more decorative element, increasingly drawn in the likeness of the Pekinese dog, which in turn had been bred to resemble the mythical Buddhist lion. The exchange and interplay between art and life have been recorded on carpets and textiles for hundreds of years.
96 FROM ANATOLIA
TO THE MAGHREB Algerian & Moroccan Aesthetics Gerard Boely Influenced by the legacy of some three hundred years of Ottoman colonial rule, Algerian rural weavings have more in common with Rabat town carpets that they do with their Moroccan tribal counterparts.
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