113 ‘Maharaja’, art
from the royal
courts of India at
the V&A in
London
100 ‘The Tsars and the East’ at Washington DC’s Sackler Gallery
111 ‘Turkmen Main Carpets” at Hans Eitzenberger in Hamburg
CONTENTS ISSUE 161 AUTUMN 2009
FRONTLINES LETTERS Susan Day’s book review in review; Martin Volkmann and Martha Henze remembered 19 NEWS A look at Sartirana Textile Fair 2009; farewell to London dealer Alexander Juran; 21 MATAM shows Crivelli carpets in Milan; the $465,000 sampler; Shelia Canby joins the Met 23 BENCHMARKS Brian Morehouse discusses the merits of a Karaman yastık; Peter Willborg on a Bakhtiari khersak; Leng Tan extols the virtues of a Safavid cuerda secatile 27 PROFILE Director of the Sakıp Sabancı Museum in Istanbul, Dr Nazan Ölçer 32 FROM THE ARCHIVE The private memoirs of W.L Flinn, son of a Ziegler & Co. partner 34 MASTERPIECE A Dida woman’s prestige garment recently acquired by the Met 38
FEATURES WISDOM FROM THE FOREST
43
JONATHAN HOPE The author’s experiences of the revival of Khmer sericulture and ikat-weaving in post-war Cambodia
THE DAVID COLLECTION
A SECRET NO LONGER
46
48
KJELD VON FOLSACH Director of the C.L. Davids Samling in Copenhagen, Denmark’s museum of Islamic art introduces the museum’s collection after its substantial renovation FROM ALADDIN’S CAVE: The reinstallation 50
SHELIA S. BLAIR & JONATHAN M. BLOOM
The internationally regarded authors take us on a tour of the David collection’ highlights
YARLUNG DRUMZE
THOMAS WILD
The radiocarbon dating of a Tibetan pile carpet fragment proves it to be at least
350 years old
66
TEXTILE ARCHITECTURE
70
The Emir of Bukhara’s tent in the State Hermitage SVETLANA ADAKSINA & LARISSA KULAKOVA A look at the complexity of this rare 19th century Uzbek chodiror garden tent
FLOWERS IN BERLIN
A survey of the exhibition of large medallion suzani and related weavings at the Museum for Islamic Art in Berlin that are the focus of the 2009 Volkmantreffen
74
SIMPLE SIBLINGS
Red, blue and white handwoven textiles from Turkish dowry chests ULLA THER This little known traditional genre of simple woven heirloom cloths from Anatolian dowry chests
78
IN SEARCH OF NEYRIZ
82
RICHARD PURDON What exactly is a ‘Neyriz’ rug? The author tries to find out through a rereading of the rug literature
CONTEXT EXHIBITIONS ‘The Tsars and the East’ at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington DC; the MAK takes a global view of art; Britain’s post-war designers, Hull Traders; tapestries from the Ramses Wissa Wassef Arts Centre; the 30th Turkmentreffen in Hamburg looks at tent-bands; Indian textiles and garments at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum; 30 years of Nomadenschaetze in Zurich 100 CALENDAR Auctions, exhibitions, fairs and conferences worldwide 116 AUCTION PRICE GUIDE Recent sales in Europe and the US 121 BOOKS Steven Cohen on Pashmina. The Kashmir shawl and Beyond; Michael Buddeberg looks at Gerhard Foitl’s collection in his publication Straps and Bands;Titles Received 128 DESIGN FILE Looking forward to the Carpet Design Awards at Domotex Hanover 2010 141 PARTING SHOTS Familiar faces from the Sartirana Textile Fair September 2009 143 FIRST VIEW A Turkish havluor ‘bath towel’ from the collection of Ulla Ther 144
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