HALIThe International Magazine of Antique Carpet and Textile Art
Editor Daniel Shaffer Deputy Editor Jill Tilden Assistant Editors Nicholas Purdon, Sheila Scott Editorial Archivist & Librarian Rachel Evans Picture Librarian John Stroud
Consultant Editors Michael Franses, Alan Marcuson Robert Pinner Contributing Editors Julia M. Bailey, Alberto Boralevi Steven Cohen, Thomas Cole Rosemary Crill, Anthony Hazledine Rina M. Indictor, Ralph Kaffel Donald King, Alberto Levi DeWitt Mallary, John Mills Vanessa Moraga, Thomas Murray Penny Oakley, James W. Reid Maria Schlatter, Philippa Scott Carlo Maria Suriano, Parviz Tanavoli John T. Wertime
Art Director Liz Dixon Art Editor Anderida Hatch
Publisher Sebastian Ghandchi
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HAM85
THE COVER Ilkhanid tapestry-woven roundel (detail of centre and first frieze band), Iraq or Iran (?), first half 14th century. Silk and gold thread of animal substrate wrapped around a beige or undyed cotton core, diameter 69cm (2'3"). The central scene shows an enthroned prince with attendants against a partly naturalistic background. His light blue kaftan has an arabesque design and a large golden cloud collar. He wears a Persian-style crown, and is distinguished from the other men shown on the textile by a nimbus adorned with palmettes. In front of the throne stands a flower vase flanked by a long-legged tortoise and a bird resembling a crane or a heron, and below these is a pond bordered with stylised leaves where two fishes are swimming. Surrounding the central design are three concentric bands, of which the first can be seen here. Twelve animals or fabulous beasts run clockwise round the frieze, backed by a golden and red arabesque scroll on a dark blue ground. The David Collection, Copenhagen, inv.no. 30/1995.
Issue 85
67 IN MEMORIAM Hans Konig remembers Ulrich Schiirmann, one of the most influential figures of his time in the world of carpets.
69 LETTERS
A cautionary word to the critical tendency; Clive Rogers on the Ritman small print; scholarship and prejudice; flaps, cuts and tacks - more on the Uzbek bedding debate.
71 FRAGMENTS Exuberant domesticity and symbols of battle, needlework and survival at the Pitt-Rivers Museum, Oxford; a painted Kazak;
English decorative arts at the Met; a new forum for Islamic art in London’s Bloomsbury; an Armenian arts festival; the
King’s wedding suit. 75 FORUM Tracking the Sihuas: Joerg Haeberli examines the hard evidence for attributions proposed in Keith Rocklin’s article on Nazca textiles; Fatimid textiles debated at the Abegg Institute,
Riggisberg; a kilim family tree emerges at a symposium in
Riehen near Basel. 80 PAX MONGOLICA
K jeld Von Folsach
A magnificent tapestry roundel in the David Collection, carbondated to the 14th century, carries a delicate and finely detailed iconography that is distinctively Islamic and yet quite unlike any recorded Islamic tapestry-woven textile. In colour and aesthetics it is close to Far Eastern kesi, while the composition combines both Mongol and Persian/Arab elements. Setting both structural and visual evidence in a historical context, the author concludes that the roundel represents an Ilkhanid princely commission.
88 XINJIANG RUGS John Taylor & Peter Hoffmeister Bold and serene, the rugs of the East Turkestan oasis towns have always been sought after by collectors. A synthesis of many different elements, they have so far defied attempts at classification. The authors review the history and ethnography of the area, and examine in detail the range of structures and characteristics generally associated with weavings attributed to
Khotan. Yarkand and Kashgar.
99 EAST TURKESTAN RUGS
REVISITED Murray L. Kilaud Jr.
In 1995 the author travelled to the oasis towns of Xinjiang in an attempt to uncover more of the rug-weaving history of the area,
past and present. His account, which draws on extensive interviews as well as material and archaeological evidence, emphasises the importance of Khotan as the region’s main carpet-producing centre.
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104 CARPETS OF THE PARISIAN
AVANT-GARDE
Sarah B . Sherrill
In the 1920s a young Frenchwoman, Marie Cuttoli, first began to commission carpet designs from artists living and working in Paris. Initially woven in Morocco and sold through the Galerie Myrbor in Paris, these carpets translate the painterly vision of such artists as Matisse, Picasso, Leger and Miro, into the plasticity of woollen pile.