HAUTheInternational Magazine of Antique Carpet and Textile Art

Publisher & Editor Alan Marcuson Associate Publisher Sebastian Ghandchi

Deputy Editor Daniel Shaffer Managing Editor J i l l Tilden Senior Editor Maria Schlatter Assistant Editor Imogen Tilden Editorial Archivist & Librarian Nicholas Purdon Picture Librarian John Stroud

Chief Contributing Editors Ian Bennett, Robert Pinner Contributing Editors Ju lia Bailey, Alberto Boralevi, Steven Cohen, Thomas Cole, Rosemary Crill, Michael Franses, Anthony Hazledine, Donald King, DeWitt Mallary, John Mills, Thomas Murray, Penny Oakley, Jam es W. Reid, Philippa Scott Parviz Tanavoli, Elena Tsareva John Wertime

Art D irector Liz Dixon Art Editor Anderida Hatch

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H ALI 73

CONTENTS

Issue 73, Volume 16, Number 1

THE COVER Emblem of the Dragon O rder. South Germany, ca. 1 4 3 0 . 2 7 x 3 9 cm (1 1 " x 15"). See p p .8 2 -8 9 , 4In Search of Medieval Embroiderers’. This badge, depicting the dragon conquered by the cross, became the symbol of the secular crusading order founded by King Sigismund of Hungary (d .1 4 3 7 ) to combat the infidel. The relief embroidery is of gold thread, enhanced with gold cord. A glass beat! represents the dragon’s eye. Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich, inv.no. T 3 7 9 2 .

65 EDITORIAL The Asia House project: John Carswell argues for a broad historical view.

67 LETTERS

Queen Guinevere’s fine silk curtains - literature as historic source material; the complex issue of dating; ICOC coverage,

a case of overkill?

69 FRAGMENTS Original technology gives Philadelphia’s rugs a dramatic lift; countdown to the Istanbul carpet conference; Bavarian symposium on Ottoman costume; impressing Anjelica - the cop and the carpet; a slightly nationalised Calico Museum, and more carpet connections.

73 FORUM

Developing a new chemical dating method for textiles; Celtic culture on the move, a contribution to the story before Lindisfarne; “1 thought he’d never leave” - F.R. Martin through the eyes of a contemporary.

76 MIND THE GAP Baluch Rugs in the V&A

Robert Pittenger

The author confronts the notoriously mine-ridden field ol Baluch studies, examining the current state of knowledge on the group of rugs in the collection of the Victoria & Albert

Museum, London. He finds that the rugs and bagfaces, acquired between 1876 and 1922, yield enough information to begin to close the gap between wild speculation and solidly founded fact.

82 IN SEARCH OF MEDIEVAL

EMBROIDERERS

Kay Staniland

Among the greatest of all medieval European artefacts are the embroideries produced for sacred and secular use. But in spite of their extraordinary skills, very little is known of the artists and craftspeople responsible for this work. The author asks what can be known of the lives and identities of the medieval embroiderers.

90 ANIMAL AND TREE CARPETS

An Amorphous Group

Ian Bennett

The author looks at nineteen symmetrically knotted rugs with ‘naive animal and tree’ designs. In spite of their disparity, he believes that all this amorphous group were woven in the ‘Western Golden Triangle', and proposes a number ol provi­

sional design subgroups in this ‘work in progress’ report.

100 EXHIBITIONS Italy celebrates its historic and contemporary role in the Islamic art tradition with a major show in Venice; a rare chance to see a group of almost 200 Anatolian rugs from the Budapest Museum of Applied Art, on show until August in the

Hungarian town of Keszthely; an exhibition at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum of remarkable and little-known Russian icons, including many embroidered textiles, on rare release from the Russian State Museum at St Petersburg.

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