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HALI 78

Issue 78, Volume 16. Number6

THE COVER Louis XV Savonnerie carpet, France, design attributed to Pierre-Josse Perrot, ca. 17401750. 6.03 x 5.67m (1910" x 18'8"). In the centre of the dark brown field is an orb with the royal arms of France, ringed by a collar of the order of Saint Esprit, and surmounted by a crown with eagle’s wings. Cornucopia issue from the acanthus cornerpieces, to alternate in the field with military trophies. The first carpet woven in this dramatic rocaille design was completed in 1740 for the Chateau de Choisy. Other examples are now in the Musee Nissim de Camondo, Paris, and the Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio. The dark ground marks a transition between the Louis XIV style, and the luxuriant light-ground carpets that follow. This carpet sold at Christie’s, London, in June 1994, for a world-record price for a carpet of any type at auction of $1,995,435 (see HALI 76, pp. 137-138). Riahi Collection, Paris, photo courtesy Christie’s.

57 EDITORIAL The Vakiflar Museum, Istanbul - the campaign gathers pace.

59 LETTERS

Support from AC0R for action to save the Vakiflar rugs; Henry

Glassie’s study of Turkish traditional art - appreciating die broader picture; what gives rise to the apparent three-

dimensionality of Salor chuval designs?

61 FRAGMENTS A tantalising glimpse of a Holbein-type carpet in a lost 16th century painting once attributed to Titian; the UK’s Early Textile Study Group looks at a cloth-of-gold pourpoint, sprang caps and much more; rug paintings that are works of art.

67 FORUM

Mathematician Nikos Salingaros returns to Chris Alexander’s aesthetic theory of centres, suggesting that behind the baffling abstractions some very sound and definable scientific principles are at work; Frank Diehr asks those intent on classifying Baluch weavings to remember the essential historical flexibility of the Baluch peoples.

72 THE KUSHUNG & SHINGKHA

OF BHUTAN Diana K. Myers

In the remote eastern Himalayas weaving is still at the centre of the Buddhist culture of Bhutan, with traditional kushung and shingka tunics holding pride ol place. Little was known until recently of these tunics, with their intricately woven patterning and detailed applique. The author offers new insights on the garments and their ceremonial meaning, gained from extensive field research in Bhutan.

82 LA SAVONNERIE

Elisabeth Floret

Following the recent sale at Christie’s, London, of a Louis XV

Savonnerie carpet for a world record price, we look at the ambience and evolution of this highly aristocratic and distinctly European carpet weaving style.

88 ON THE ROAD TO ZAKATALA

Tony Hazledine

Earlier this year the author travelled with Istanbul rug dealer Erol Kazanci to the town of Zakatala in northern Azerbaijan. Among the current spate of fashionable and often fanciful rug attributions, would ‘Zakatala’ turn out to be more than a figment of an armchair traveller’s imagination? In the event, the town mosque proved to contain a trove of interesting rugs.

96 EXHIBITIONS Conservation of a 4,400 year old Egyptian bead-net dress, now on display at the Petrie Museum, London, presented a historical and technical conundrum; the Hamburg IC0C Turkoman show properly realised at the Deutsches Textilmuseum, Krefeld; a round-up of exhibitions in the USA Flores and Solor Islands textiles at the Fowler Museum, Los Angeles; Noh robes at RISD in Providence; Indian miniatures at the Brooklyn Museum; early Chinese acquisitions at Cleveland; an Alaskan first - Caucasian rugs in Anchorage;

and in Italy, Coptic textiles at the Ravenna Museum.

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