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IIAIIThe International Magazine of Antique Carpet and Textile Art Editor Daniel Shaffer Deputy Editor Jill Tilden Senior Editor Nicholas Purdon Editorial Archivist & Librarian Rachel Evans Editorial Assistants Abigail McCullough, Sania Rahman Consultant Editors Michael Franses, Robert Pinner Contributing Editors Julia Bailey, Alberto Boralevi John Carswell. Steven Cohen Thomas Cole. Rosemary Crill Susan Day, Murray Eiland Jr Herbert Exner, Anthony Hazledine Rina Indictor, Ralph Kaffel Alan Kennedy, Donald King DeWitt Mallary, John Mills Vanessa Moraga, Thomas Murray Penny Oakley, Carlo Maria Suriano Wendel Swan, Parviz Tanavoli John Wertime Art Director Liz Dixon Art Editor Sam Paton Publisher Sebastian Ghandehi Senior Advertisement Executive Ralph Emmerson Advertisement Executive Rosario Canade Advertisement Co-ordinator Angharad Britton Distribution Assistant Chris Armstrong Circulation & Database Consultant Veronica Purdey THE COVER Karabagh sumakh saddle-bag half, south Transcaucasus, third quarter 19th century. 0.53 x 0.60m (1'9" x l ' l 1/4"). John Wertime, author of Sumak Bags o f Northwest Persia & Transcaucasia, considers this one of the greatest known sumakh bags. The harmonious effect achieved by the generously spaced and proportioned design of diagonal bands is rare in such bags, which generally are more densely decorated. It forms a distinctive sub-group with another, similar bag illustrated by Murray Eiland in Oriental Rugs from Pacific Collections (1990, pi. 192). Both share the diagonally banded red, white and blue palette, all-wool construction and an undecorated light red back. Private collection. USA. Issue 99 49 EDITORIAL Thoughts on the HALI Fair, a hugely enjoyable ACOR 4, a single owner sale that remained earthbound, rugs of dubious pedigree at auction, the AORTA conference in Tucson, and HALI 100. 51 LETTERS Positively the last word on purple from Harald Bohmer; Clive Loveless on Kurdish rugs; Nicholas Wright adds his voice to the ongoing C-14 debate; a germech across my threshold? Not likely! 53 FRAGMENTS An Inca tunic from the Museum of the Americas, Madrid; coveted book award for Ikat; Michael Franses’visit to Hackwood reveals a Turkish village rug in a Lady's portrait; ushering in a new post-Stanzer era at the Austrian Society for Textile Art Research. 55 POSTCARD John Mills writes from northern Spain, where the Monasterio de Las Huelgas in Burgos and the church of San Isidoro in Leon yield remarkable textile treasures. 57 FORUM A cache of carpet fragments in a museum in Tbilisi leads Murray Eiland III on a journey to a remote cave site in Georgia, and opens up the debate on early pile weaving traditions in the Transcaucasus. 61 CONFERENCES Sheila Blair reports on a symposium on ‘Safavid Art and Architecture’ in London; a Sackler/Smithsonian conference on 'Ikat Textiles in Asia’ takes place in Washington DC; ICOC Italy, a call for papers. 64 FIRE AND WATER Rehamna Carpets, Recent Field Research in the Plains of Marrakesh Marcel Korolnik The mainly Arab weaving tribes of the Plains of Marrakesh make a variety of pile and flatweaves. Lack of reliable information has meant that these rugs are generally misattributed, a situation that the author is seeking to remedy through his ongoing field studies in the area. HALI PUBLICATIONS LIMITED St Giles House, 50 Poland Street London W1V TAX, UK Telephone (44 I 71) 970 4600 Editorial answerphone (44 171)970 4841 Main fax (44 171) 970 4897 Advertising fax (44 171) 970 4896 E-mail hab@centaur.co.uk Website http://www.hali.co.uk For courier and hand deliveries only, HALI is located al: 1&2 Berners Street, 3rd Floor London W1P 3AG, UK A Member of the Centaur Communications Limited Group HALI 99 70 FORBIDDEN TERRITORY Early Islamic Audience-Hall Carpets Avinoam Shalem What can be known of the use of early royal carpets? Literary sources show that the carpet on which a caliph was seated was an inviolable area, an extension of the royal presence that could not be entered without special authority. 78 THE IKATS OF INDIA Rosemary Crill The dyeing and pattern making skills of Indian textile craftsmen have ensured the renown of ikat weaves from the Subcontinent. The Victoria & Albert Museum’s Indian Department boasts an extensive collection of these textiles, which are surveyed here by the author of an important new book on the subject. 4
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J u l y 1 9 9 8 8 4 E X H I B I T I O N S A rare chance to see great classical carpets from the collection of the MFA, Boston; Mara National Museum shows 8th century treasures; Jack Corwin’s Afshars in San Francisco; Oriental Rugs from Canadian Collections in Toronto; the Met’s Unicorn Tapestries on special show in NY; Fatimid art at the IMA in Paris; Sumba ikats in Rotterdam. Also, beads, raffia, angels and lovers. 9 2 B O O K S James Opie reviews John Wertime’s Sumak Bags o f Northwest Persia & Transcaucasia: Yanni PetsopouloS on Ahmet Frtug’s Silks for the Sultans. 9 9 A P P E N D I X Notes, acknowledgments and supplementary information. 1 0 0 T I T L E S R E C E I V E D A selection of recently published books and catalogues. 1 0 1 T H E H A L I G A L L E R Y A distinctive advertisement section in house stvle. ] 1 9 M A R K E T P L A C E N E W S Sailer rugs for SNY in October; David Black bets on modern naturally dyed rugs and kilims; Uli Herrmann launches her own business; a Safavid velvet at SLO. 1 2 1 A U C T I O N R E P O R T S Homer and Herrmann rugs play second fiddle to large decoratives at Sotheby’s in New York; battle of the J’itans for Islamic art, but rugs are a different story. 1 2 3 A U C T I O N P R I C E G U I D E SNY's April sale produces the best in quality terms for some time; battered classieals sell well at Christie’s country picnic at Hackwood Park, but rugs and textiles at London’s Asian Week fail to thrill. 1 3 1 F A I R S TEFAF Maastricht and Milan, quality but not quantity; brisk business at New York’s twin high-profile Asian art fairs at the uptown and downtown Armories. 1 3 5 G A L L E R I E S David Reuben’s Turkmens in London; tokchas at Teresa Coleman’s Tibetan Gallery in Hong Kong; Hans Eitzenberger opens a new antique rug gallery in Hamburg; Kuba textiles in Munich. 1 3 7 M A R K E T R E P O R T An in-depth city-wide editorial report by Nick Purdon on the London antique carpet and textile scene. 1 5 3 N E T W O R K A classified advertisement section. 1 6 3 C A L E N D A R Listings of auctions, exhibitions, fairs and conferences worldwide. 1 6 7 P A R T I N G S H O T S Iligh times and rugs aplenty at ACOR 4 in Denver, with an East Coast wedding and a West Coast Afshar show. SI BSCRIPTION RATES UK: 6 issues £66; 12 issues £123 USA: 6 issues SI32; 12 issues $249 GERMANY: 6 issues DM228; 12 issues DM411 REST OF EUROPE: 6 issues£76; 12 issues £137 REST OF WORII): 6 issues £92, 12 issues £ 177 Current and Back Issues are available. For details see the Order Card in this issue. Please address all written enquiries to our London Office. SUBSCRIPTION ORDER LINE (Answering machine) (44 171) 970 4564 HALI is published six times a year in February, April. June. August, September and December. HALI is published by Hali Publications Limited. Company Registration No.1391142. Printed in United Kingdom. ©Worldwide. Hali Publications Limited. London 1998. ISSN 0142-0798 ©Registered in the US Patent & Trademark Office. This periodical is sold subject to the condition that it shall not be lent, hired out or otherwise disposed of bv way of trade al a price in excess of the recommended subscription price, without die prior written permission of the publishers, Hali Publications Limited. Postmaster Please send USA address changes to: HALI, P.O. Box 1518, Champlain, NY 12919-1518, USA. PERIODICAL POSTAGE PAID at Champlain NY, and additional offices. P.P.I. are our USA mailing agents. Unsolicited Materials While the publishers encourage the submission ol unsolicited manuscripts, authors should retain a copy of such manuscripts as w'ell as of the illustrative material. All work, in typescript or computer printout, should be doublespaced. with wide margins. HALI accepts no responsibility for the loss of, or damage to, such material. Unless specifically requested, all photographs and materials will be retained. The publishers reserve the right to edit or precis all submitted material as they deem appropriate for publication. Worldwide copyright is held by the publishers, Hali Publications Limited. Reproduction of any text or illustration, in whole or in part, is forbidden without the publishers* prior written permission. Imagesetting: Disc to Print, London. Colour Origination, Printing & Binding: J. Thomson Colour Printers, Glasgow. Paper: Mediaprint Gloss I 15gsm supplied by Donald Murray Paper Ltd.. Glasgow. HALI ETYMON Hali, the modern Turkish word for carpet or rug, was written kali in Ottoman Turkish script until late in the 19th century, as it was in classical Persian and still is in modern Persian. It was borrowed from Persian into Urdu and from Ottoman Turkish into Armenian and other Caucasian tongues and into the languages of the Balkans. Its ultimate origin is uncertain; it could be Turkish but might be Sogdian. HALI 99

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IIAIIThe International Magazine of Antique Carpet and Textile Art

Editor Daniel Shaffer Deputy Editor Jill Tilden Senior Editor Nicholas Purdon Editorial Archivist & Librarian Rachel Evans Editorial Assistants Abigail McCullough, Sania Rahman Consultant Editors Michael Franses, Robert Pinner Contributing Editors Julia Bailey, Alberto Boralevi John Carswell. Steven Cohen Thomas Cole. Rosemary Crill Susan Day, Murray Eiland Jr Herbert Exner, Anthony Hazledine Rina Indictor, Ralph Kaffel Alan Kennedy, Donald King DeWitt Mallary, John Mills Vanessa Moraga, Thomas Murray Penny Oakley, Carlo Maria Suriano Wendel Swan, Parviz Tanavoli John Wertime

Art Director Liz Dixon Art Editor Sam Paton

Publisher Sebastian Ghandehi

Senior Advertisement Executive Ralph Emmerson Advertisement Executive Rosario Canade Advertisement Co-ordinator Angharad Britton

Distribution Assistant Chris Armstrong

Circulation & Database Consultant Veronica Purdey

THE COVER Karabagh sumakh saddle-bag half, south Transcaucasus, third quarter 19th century. 0.53 x 0.60m (1'9" x l ' l 1/4"). John Wertime, author of Sumak Bags o f Northwest Persia & Transcaucasia, considers this one of the greatest known sumakh bags. The harmonious effect achieved by the generously spaced and proportioned design of diagonal bands is rare in such bags, which generally are more densely decorated. It forms a distinctive sub-group with another, similar bag illustrated by Murray Eiland in Oriental Rugs from Pacific Collections (1990, pi. 192). Both share the diagonally banded red, white and blue palette, all-wool construction and an undecorated light red back. Private collection. USA.

Issue 99

49 EDITORIAL

Thoughts on the HALI Fair, a hugely enjoyable ACOR 4, a single owner sale that remained earthbound, rugs of dubious pedigree at auction, the AORTA conference in Tucson, and HALI 100.

51 LETTERS

Positively the last word on purple from Harald Bohmer; Clive Loveless on Kurdish rugs; Nicholas Wright adds his voice to the ongoing C-14 debate; a germech across my threshold? Not likely!

53 FRAGMENTS

An Inca tunic from the Museum of the Americas, Madrid; coveted book award for Ikat; Michael Franses’visit to Hackwood reveals a Turkish village rug in a Lady's portrait; ushering in a new post-Stanzer era at the Austrian Society for Textile Art Research.

55 POSTCARD

John Mills writes from northern Spain, where the Monasterio de Las Huelgas in Burgos and the church of San Isidoro in Leon yield remarkable textile treasures.

57 FORUM

A cache of carpet fragments in a museum in Tbilisi leads Murray Eiland III on a journey to a remote cave site in Georgia, and opens up the debate on early pile weaving traditions in the Transcaucasus.

61 CONFERENCES

Sheila Blair reports on a symposium on ‘Safavid Art and Architecture’ in London; a Sackler/Smithsonian conference on 'Ikat Textiles in Asia’ takes place in Washington DC; ICOC Italy, a call for papers.

64 FIRE AND WATER

Rehamna Carpets, Recent Field Research in the Plains of Marrakesh Marcel Korolnik The mainly Arab weaving tribes of the Plains of Marrakesh make a variety of pile and flatweaves. Lack of reliable information has meant that these rugs are generally misattributed, a situation that the author is seeking to remedy through his ongoing field studies in the area.

HALI PUBLICATIONS LIMITED St Giles House, 50 Poland Street London W1V TAX, UK Telephone (44 I 71) 970 4600 Editorial answerphone (44 171)970 4841 Main fax (44 171) 970 4897 Advertising fax (44 171) 970 4896 E-mail hab@centaur.co.uk Website http://www.hali.co.uk For courier and hand deliveries only, HALI is located al: 1&2 Berners Street, 3rd Floor London W1P 3AG, UK A Member of the Centaur Communications Limited Group

HALI 99

70 FORBIDDEN TERRITORY

Early Islamic Audience-Hall Carpets Avinoam Shalem What can be known of the use of early royal carpets? Literary sources show that the carpet on which a caliph was seated was an inviolable area, an extension of the royal presence that could not be entered without special authority.

78 THE IKATS OF INDIA

Rosemary Crill The dyeing and pattern making skills of Indian textile craftsmen have ensured the renown of ikat weaves from the Subcontinent. The Victoria & Albert Museum’s Indian Department boasts an extensive collection of these textiles, which are surveyed here by the author of an important new book on the subject.

4

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