HALITheInternationalMagazineof 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 jd Consultant Editors ? Michael Franses, Alan Marcuson 8 Robert Pinner

Contributing Editors Julia M. Bailey, Alberto Boralevi Steven Cohen,ThomasCole RosemaryCrill, Anthony Hazledine Rina M. Indictor, Ralph Kaffel Donald King, Alberto Levi DeWitt Mallary, John Mills Vanessa Moraga, ThomasMurray PennyOakley, JamesW. Reid MariaSchlatter, Philippa Scott Carlo MariaSuriano, ParvizTanavoli JohnT. Wertime Art Director Liz Dixon Art Editor Anderida Hatch Production Manager Liz Jobling Publisher Sebastian Ghandchi Advertisement Manager Christiane Di Re Senior Advertisement Executive ConradShouldice Advertisement Executive Mark Harbour Advertisement Co-ordinator Angharad Britton Projects & Promotions Manager Piers Clemett Publisher’s Assistant & Office Manager Dorisse Akufo-Addo Subscriptions Manager Ashley Spinks Distribution Manager MarcThomas Systems Manager Veronica Purdey Receptionist Zobida Khan

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HAL.I84

CONTENTS Issue 84, Volume I7, Number 6

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55 EDITORIAL An offer they can refuse? Variable institutional response to proposed donations of carpet and textile collections.

57 LETTERS Correspondents debate matters curvi- and rectilinear; Robert Pinner remembers his first encounter with Jean Lefevre; Navajo slave weavings; bureaucratic bad manners;

professional ethics.

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THE COVER Persian warp-faced nomadic bands (details, left to right): i) Shahsavan, late 19th century, 8.5 x 936cm (3" x 30'8", excluding tassels), one-weft double cloth, published in P. Tanavoli, Shahsavan, 1985, pi.274; ii) Kerman, late 19th century, one-weft double cloth, 6.5 x 488cm (2,/2" x 16'0"); iii) Shahsavan, 19th century, one-weft double cloth, 7x 737cm (3" x 24'2", excluding tassels); iv) Bakhtiari saddle-girth, late 19tli/early 20th century, warpfaced reciprocal warp weave with warp-twining in the borders, 7.6 x 224cm (3" x 74"); v) Bakhtiari tent-band, 19th century, warp-faced reciprocal warp weave with warp-twining in the borders, 6.4 x352cm (2i/2" x 34'0", excluding tassel), published in J. Opie, Tribal Rugs, 1992, pi.8.11. All private collection, Kentucky.

61 FRAGMENTS A new state-of-the-art centre for textiles at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; John Mills uncovers an early Dutch painted Ushak; Jerusalem’s Islamic Museum appoints a new director; German collectors meet in Munich, Krefeld and Hodenhagen;

a 5th century Sasanian okbash?

65 FORUM

Sorting the warp from the weft under the aegis of CIETA as textile specialists from all over the world converge on Paris.

70 CONFERENCE REPORTS So you thought you knew the meaning of ‘tribal’... Delegates at the October Textile Museum mg convention in Washington have their preconceptions challenged.

72 SYMBOLS OF NATIONHOOD

History of the Polish Sash Maria Taszycka & Manfred Holst The formal costume adopted by the Polish aristocracy in the 16th century had its roots in Middle Eastern traditions. The familiar kaftan became the Polish kontush, and as in the East, a dramatic silk sash, both broad and long, was knotted over it with panache. The authors look at the subtle and sophisticated designs of the Polish sash, sourced initially in the East, then in Poland under Armenian anil French direction, and later in France itself.

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78 PERSIAN WARP-FACED

NOMADIC BANDS

Fred Mushkat

Narrow bands in a variety of techniques were made mainly by

Qashqa’i, Bakhtiari and Shahsavan nomadic tribespeople. Both decorative and practical, they served to secure tents and the baggage carried by pack-animals. The conservatism of nomadic culture makes it likely that these weavings, produced entirely for domestic use, carried the same design forms little changed over many generations.

88 EXHIBITIONS Boldly going where none have gone before, London’s Royal Academy of Arts attempts a global summation of African art in all media, all regions and all periods; in Geneva, art of the Ottoman empire from the Khalili Collection with an emphasis on calligraphy; Chinese artefacts from sensational archaeological hoards in ‘Mysteries from Ancient China’ in Munich; brief reports from Germany: Anatolian kilims in Nienburg, Ottoman-Saxon cross-currents in Dresden and Wilhelm von Bode remembered on Berlin’s Museum Island; from London: African textiles and Japanese bijin; and from

California: collectors' rugs and textiles in Santa Monica,

Persian tribal bags in Beverly Hills, Mongolian art in

San Francisco and Okinawan textiles in LA.