ISSUE 129 JULY/AUGUST 2003
C O N T E N T S & E D I T O R I A L
11 | LETTERS
Letters to the editor, and obituaries.
13 I NEWS
A rare early Karapinar auctioned in Asheville. North Carolina, may be the tip of the iceberg.
15 | FRAGMENTS
A perfect example of'Transylvanian' lazy lines.
3 1 | PREVI EW
Fairs: Round two of the Tucson Antique Rug & Textile Bazaar at the Hacienda del Sol.
3 5 | CALENDAR
Auctions, exhibitions, fairs and conferences.
4 3 IBOOKS & TITLES RECEIVED
Reviews oLKoekboya, Southwest Textiles, and Loot Legitimacy and Ownership.
55 [BLANKET BASICS
N avajo W eaving ofthe C la s s ic , Late C la s s ic & Early T ransitio n a l Periods Ann Lane Hedlund Anticipating a major exhibition of Navajo blankets at the Textile Museum in Washington DC this autumn, the guest curator provides the historical context for these dramatic, abstract weavings.
6 1 j ICOC X REVIEW
In Washington DC: an overview of the lecture programme, plus exhibitions of Mamluk. Spanish and other classical carpets, Uzbek rugs and textiles. Kaitag embroideries, northwest Persian mafrash and khorjin. Turkmen ensis, Kurdish carpets, Fars rugs and the Dealers' Fair. In New York: the postconference tour, with Baluch rugs, Turkmen main carpets, Central Asian embroideries, and more.
9 3 j GALLERY
House style advertisements.
99 j REVIEW
Exhibitions: Manastir kilims in Vienna: a touring exhibition of African-American quilts; Peruvian featherwork in Paris; Southeast Asian textiles in Amsterdam. Auctions: Rippon Boswell's May sale.
10 9 | AUCTION PRICE GUIDE
The best of the Spring sales in NY and London.
1 1 5 | DESIGN FILE
Milan's design exhibition season; ICFF, New York: plus SOFA, Donegal and Navajo revivals, and the Miri Collection in Japan.
1 2 1 | NETWORK
Classified advertisements.
1 2 71 PARTING SHOTS
Carpet mania at ICOC X in Washington and NY.
After the Fair
Every year since its inception, the HALI Antique Carpet and Textile Art Fair has been lauded in the national and international specialist art and antiques press as the most colourful and vibrant art event in the London in June season. As the curtain falls on another year's Fair it seems that this is set to continue. From 5-8 June 2003,visitors to Level 1 of the Olympia 2 exhibition centre were treated to an eclectic display of antique textiles and carpets, complemented this year by tribal art, whose aesthetic fits comfortably with that of carpets and textiles. The successful cross-over between the two areas was evident in the fact that many of the tribal dealers were on the verge of selling out by the end of the fair.
Attendance, at more than 8,800, was slightly up on last year, with the majority of visitors entering the HALI Fair through the links from either the concurrent Summer Olympia Fine Art and Antiques Fair or the Antiquarian Book Fair. Overall levels of business also appeared to be slightly improved on 2002, and the Wednesday evening private view, fuelled by plenty of champagne, was buzzing with an impressive roll call of collectors, dealers and museum professionals. However, it was noticeable throughout the fair that there were fewer international collectors and interior decorators present, especially from the USA, indicating that travel fears, stock market uncertainty and the weak dollar are still an impediment to really vigorous sales at such an event. The void was filled by a surprisingly large crowd of British visitors and buyers (a contingent previously underestimated), and when foreign buyer numbers and expenditure do return to the levels of the late 1990s, as they will, we can expect some remarkable activity.
In addition to the new Tribal Art Pavilion and the introduction of a Gold Level section for leading dealers, another innovation which yielded significant activity was the introduction of the Souk, aseparate bazaar-like area intended for lower budget exhibitors and buyers, especially first-time buyers.
The special ‘Masterpieces on the Market' exhibition, this year o f ‘Persian Carpets and Textiles before 1800' inspired much interest among visitors with its superb selection of classical and postclassical carpets and textiles. Now in its third year, this feature provides a focal point for those wanting to learn something about the history and context of carpet art. This time, although no direct sales were recorded during the show itself, there was a strong rumour circulating that the Milanese dealer Moshe Tabibnia had received a serious enquiry about the late 16th century 'Bacri Imperial Hunting Carpet' from a collector who had viewed it at the HALI Fair.
THE COVER
If confirmed, the sale of such an important classical carpet for a rumoured seven figure sum, together with the fact that Design Pavilion exhibitor Elsa (see Design File this issue) had sold everything on their stand by the end of the first day. show that the HALI Fair has come of age and established a secure position on the calendar of various different types of art buyer. Despite the less than buoyant economic times in which it took place, we may justifiably consider the 2003 fair a success, since it is now achieving what it first set out to do: to introduce carpet and textile art to as wide an audience as possible and to generate interest in our field where there was none before.
Navajo third phase chiePsstyle blanket, ca. 1870-1880. Tapestry weave, sheep’swool, 1.52x 1.65m(5'o" x5'5"). Yarns handspun and ravelled; cochineal red. Navajoweavers often played with optical illusions in their artwork. The terraced diamond and triangles of this blanket dominate the banded background, unlike earlier examples in which imagery is more balanced. Thisdynamicdesign represents the transition to a ‘fourth phase’ style inwhich the foreground motifs almost completely cover the background. The equilateral crosses were popular on blankets of the 1870s. The Textile Museum, Washington DC, gift of Colonel F. M. lohnson, Jr., 1976.30.4
HALI 129|5