ISSUE 126 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2003

CONTENTS

11 |EDITORIAL

Looking back over 2002, a year full of change, but with many highlights.

13 | LETTERS

Is Ronnie Newman's chuval Salor or Tekke? the debate continues; Emmett Eiland campaigns for awider context for modern carpets; Ralph Kaffel gives the broader picture on Bill Ballard's Karapinar; Calling all relatives of a St Andrew's Cross design sumakh bag.

15 |NEWS

Sale of the century - a magnificent largepattern Holbein carpet surfaces unher aided in Venice to set a new world record price at auction for an Anatolian weaving; Parisian tapestry team Blondeel and Deroyan part company; Milan textile art fair postponed; in honour of Emily Sanford; HALI takes on the world; preColumbian correction.

19 | FRAGMENTS

Madame de Pompadour plays Sultana; the world at your feet; Edward Lear's view of the Bosphorus; a flag to touch; an invitation to share new insights at the Ashmolean Museum. Oxford.

33 | PREVIEW

Preparations are under way for the Xth ICOC in Washington DC next Easter and an ambitious programme of exhibitions; John Wertime reports on nomadic and village weaving from the central and southern Zagros; James Burns looks beyond the surface of Kurdish weavings; Susan Scollay introduces Kaitag embroideries from UScollections; Elena Tsareva on Uzbekistan's varied textile art at the Uzbek embassy; Carol Bier on the Textile Museum's marvellous Mamluks. For the hectic post-ICOC tour in New York, Lisette Mallary suggests a caffeine diet. Other exhibitions: a Tudor love affair with oriental carpets brings PR benefits; a Baluch bonanza in Liestal; James Blackmon unwraps Aymara textiles in San Francisco.

63 |CALEN DAR

Aworldwide listing of auctions, exhibitions, fairs and conferences.

67 | ISLAMIC ART

The Met offers insights into Rashid al-Din's Mongol reading of history; Alhambra images in question as experts examine an unusual amphora following its world record sale at auction; the Aga Khan chooses Canada: T1EMinsights in print; back on the roller-coaster for the autumn Islamic sales and a chance for the discerning to acquire in all media; aspects of European Orientalism at L.eighton House - a 19th century design portfolio, and some of the Islamic style artefacts it inspired in the period of the Great Exhibitions.

77 | BOOKS

Kenneth Teague reviews TheNomadic Peoples of Iran, edited by Jon Thompson and Richard Tapper - a vital visual document of the people behind the weavings. with stunning photographs by Nasrollah Kasraian.

89 I FORUM

In the absence of an Ottoman design tradition of paired columns before the 14th century, how did the coupledcolumn prayer rug design enter the Anatolian carpet weaving tradition? Walter Denny argues that the story begins in Andalusia - and more specifically with Sephardic Jews.

92 |THE ARTIST’S EYE

Carpet and Textile Collections of the Orientalists Susan Day Colonial expansionism in the 19th century brought the imagery of new and exotic lands within the visual landscape of Western artists and writers. Aschool of painters emerged who were intoxicated by a romantic ideal of the East. The images they produced, in styles that ranged from the allusively impressionistic to a photographic hyper-realism, drew on research, literature, sometimes travel, often Eastern artefacts, and always a liberal sprinkling of the creative imagination. Carpets and textiles were a key authenticating feature in these paintings, and their appearance in an admired artistic context helped to restore their status in the public eye.

105 |THE HALI GALLERY

Ahouse style advertisement section.

113 |REVIEW

Exhibitions: Peter Willborg's blockbuster Bakhtiari exhibition receives accolades in Stockholm; Anatolian carpets in the classical tradition at the Textile Museum, Washington DC: Ben Evans on events current and upcoming in Vienna; MAAOgoes out with a bang and a boubou; marking thirty years of Galerie Triff with a kilim exhibition; Raymond Benardout features Turkmen and Baluch rugs with a history in Los Angeles; Linda Wrigglesworth, Simon Ray, John Eskenazi, Tucker &Tozer and more at Asian Art in London. Fairs: a promising start for Ars Terra Incognita in Berlin. Auctions: Quirky Turkmen asmalyks and a Serapi triumph at Rippon Boswell.

129 |AUCTION PRICE GUIDE

Christie’s last Tribal Art sale in Amsterdam; a Ningxia carpet runs circles round Christie's NY; the best of the rest of the autumn sales.

141 |DESIGN FILE

Suzanis prove controversial at David Black's London gallery: Paul Ramsey goes modern at 'Krimsa': Oliver Legge’s rug store in London's Islington is a natural progression; Lisette Mallary on the secret of Michaelian &Kohlberg's success; Hakimian and Doris Leslie Blau become designer labels.

149 |THE DESIGN GALLERY

Amodern carpet advertisement section.

153 |NETWORK

Aclassified advertisement section.

158 | PARTING SHOTS

Snap happy at the TMConvention; visitors to RB's November sale; familiar faces in Vienna, Berlin and London.

160 | LAST PAGE

Turn down a dark narrow alleyway in Istanbul and you may stumble upon John Brunton's favourite haunt. But does he really want you to find the Ora Cafe?

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