HALITheInternational Magazine of Antique Carpet and Textile Art
Editor Daniel Shaffer Deputy Editor Jill Til den Senior Editor Nicholas Purdon Editorial Archivist & Librarian Rachel Evans Assistant Editor (German liaison) Jenny Marsh Editorial Assistant Emily Roberts
Consultant Editors Michael Franses, Robert Pinner Contributing Editors Julia Bailey, Alberto Boralevi John Carswell, Steven Cohen Thomas Cole, Rosemary Crill Herbert Exner, Anthony Hazledine Rina Indictor, Ralph Kaffel Donald King, Alberto Levi DeWitt Mallary, John Mills Vanessa Moraga, Thomas Murray Aaron Nejad, Penny Oakley James W. Reid, Maria Schlatter Philippa Scott, Carlo Maria Suriano Parviz Tanavoli, John Wertime
Art Director Liz Dixon Art Editor Anderida Hatch
Publisher Sebastian Ghandchi
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Deputy Advertisement Manager Conrad Shouldice Senior Advertisement Executive Ralph Emmerson Advertisement Co-ordinator Angharad Britton
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HALI 92
THE COVER Central Anatolian kihm (detail), mid 17th to early 19th century. Radiocarbon dated at the Institute of Particle Physics (ETH), Zurich, Switzerland. Two joined fragments, 1 .7 2 x 3.45m (5'8" x 11*4"). One of the group of 49 Anatolian kihms and one zUi from European private collections, all thought to have been woven before 1800, that were C-14 tested at ETH and discussed at the recent 2nd International Symposium on Anatolian Kilims in Liestal (see Conference Reports). Twentyfive pieces, including this kilim, were also shown at the Baseband Cantonal Museum in Liestal. The halves of this kilim were separately published in B. Frauenknecht, Anatolische Kelims (1982, pi. 14) and HALI 5/4 (1983, p.479). It is currently on display in the exhibition of Anatohan kilims from German cobections at SchloB Rheydt in Monchengladbach. Private collection, Cologne.
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Issue 92
61 EDITORIAL May Beattie changed the face of carpet studies with her quest for firm attributive criteria.
63 LETTERS Dating Herizes; why the kilim symposium gets my vote;
not at all the same suzani; dot the i and call it Talish;
a minor millefleurs adjustment.
65 FRAGMENTS The first Iron Lady’s significant purse resurfaces; Uzbekistan bugs given the cold shoulder; an Iranian artist’s tribal nostalgia; a warm glow in Mulhouse; embroidered crafts at the Renwick; a Nazca sun-mantle for the De Young. Farewell to Hanna Erdmann, Don Wilber, John Irwin and Toby Falk.
71 FORUM
An 1884 encounter with the Saryk and their kibitkas hung about with rugs sent officers on the Afghan Boundary Commission into a frenzy of rug collecting - at any price.
Remembering Charles Grant Ellis.
75 CONFERENCE REPORTS In October 1996 specialists met at the Suzhou Silk Museum to debate ways of giving China’s silk relics a new lease of life.
Those who submit to the unique thralldom exercised by Anatolian kilims respond to the peculiar tim elessness of great examples. A kilim symposium in Switzerland attracted a large and enthusiastic attendance to discuss the results obtained when fifty ‘early’ kilims were subjected to C-14 analysis.
80 SILK ROUNDELS FROM THE SUI
TO THE TANG
Zhao Feng, with an introduction by Jacqueline Siincox One of the most familiar designs in art from Europe to the Far East, the roundel had a particular prominence in Central Asian and Chinese silks over many centuries. The author looks at its incidence in silks either excavated along the Silk Route, or preserved in Nara, Japan, identifying a number of characteristic groupings and tracing their development.
86 PREGNANT WITH MEANING
John Eskenazi
A fifth ‘early animal’ carpet fragment found in Tibet has entered the rug consciousness. The author proposes a context for the characteristic ‘pregnant’ and mythical beast imagery in
Eurasian Animal-style art, and asks what might be learned from comparison with later carpets and kilims.
88 WIDENER S GIFT
Robert Wilson Torcliia
For the benefit of ICOC Grand Tourists, The National Gallery of Art in Washington DC briefly displayed a handful of magnificent Safavid and Mughal classical carpets donated to the museum by the collector Joseph W idener in the 1940s.
98 ICOC FINALE
Daniel Shaffer
A hard-core of enthusastic rug tourists embarked on a postconference round of East Coast visits and exhibitions at venues that included the Metropolitan and Brooklyn Museums in New
York, and the NGA and Textile Museum in Washington.
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