HALIInternational Magazine oj que Carpet and Textile Art blisher & E d i to r n Marcuson ociate P ublisher astian Ghandchi u ty E d i to r niel Shaffer aging E d i to r Tilden istant E d ito rs holas Purdon, Sheila Scott to r ia l A rchivist & L ib ra r ian hel Howells tu re L ib ra r ia n n Stroud ef C o n tr ib u t in g E d i to r ert Pinner trib u t in g E d ito rs a Bailey, Alberto Boralevi en Cohen, Thomas Cole emary Crill. Michael Franses hony Hazledine, Rina Indictor ph Kaffel, Donald King Witt Mallary, John Mills mas Murray, Penny Oakley es W. Reid. Maria Schlatter ippa Scott, Carlo Maria Suriano iz Tanavoli, John Wertime

D irec to r Dixon E d i to r erida Hatch e r t isem en l M anager e W icks e r t isem en t Executives istiane Di Re, Conrad Shouldiee e r t isem en t C o -o rd in a to r harad Britton scriptions M anager dm in is tra t io n ley Spinks b l ish e r ’s Assistant ndy Kasabian lrib n t io n M anager c Thomas lem s M anager onica Purdey ep t io n is t i da Khan i Publications L im ited gsgate H ouse, K ingsgate P lace n d o n NW6 4TA , UK

ephone (4 4 1 7 1 ) 3 2 8 9 3 4 1 (4 4 1 7 1 ) 3 7 2 5 9 2 4 M em ber o f T h e C en ta u r nm unications L im ited G roup

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Issue 79, Volume 17, Number 1

THE COVER ( 'la ssie Saltillo s c rap e w ith a scalloped c irc le on a v e rtical m osaic field and a d iam ond p a t te rn bord e r (detail). 2 .1 5 by 1 .1 3m (7 '1 " x 3 '8 " ) . P la inw eave w ith d iscontinuous wefts; slits and single doveta ilin g a t ju n c tu re s . Warp: handspun, undyed, o ff-w h ite co tto n ; weft: h andspun wool, undyed and indigo dyed. F r in g e m issing, but o th e rw ise in excellent condition. ‘’B lu e ’ Saltillo se rapes a re com p a r a tiv e ly r a r e as a re se rapes with a scalloped c irc le at th e c en tre . T h is s e ra p e was a cquired f rom a p r iv a te collection in th e United S ta te s . Most o f th e surviving s e rapes a re in th e United S ta tes, a lth ough th e re rem a in a few in M exico and som e a re held in E u ro p e an collections. A lb e rto U lrieli C o l lection, New York.

57 EDITORIAL Recent events in the rug market and their significance.

67 LETTERS

The ‘Baluch’debate continues; Nazca water symbolism under attack; a positive response from the Vakiflar authorities; Charles Grant Ellis on Mending’s rugs; when is a rug society not a rug society; epistemology revisited.

73 FRAGMENTS Carpets and textiles in paintings, examples spanning 1.100 years; Philadelphia ICOC call for papers; London’s V&A seeks a new director; start planning for Hong Kong’s Chinese textile symposium in June 1995.

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77 FORUM

Master artisans and scholars meet in Islamabad to celebrate,

demonstrate and discuss creativity in traditional Islamic crafts; raising the profile of Indonesian textiles at a symposium in Jakarta. 79 OBITUARIES In memoriam: Adil Besim, Friedrich Langauer, Siegfried Gassong, Ralph Yohe and B.C. Holland.

80 THE SALTILLO SERAPE History and Conservation

Kathrin Colburn

First woven during the colonial area in northern Mexico, but with design roots in earlier cultures, the Saltillo serape is increasingly appreciated and collected. The author looks al the history of these essentially practical textiles, and discusses some approaches to their conservation.

88 SARAB Raoul E. Tsohebull

Unimpressed by the sea of Shahsavan flatweaves that surrounded them, during the 19th century weavers of the Sarah district, between Tabriz and Ardabil. held fast to their pile-weaving tradition. And while other northwest Persian areas bowed to commercial pressure, Sarah weavers continued throughout the revival period to produce their distinctive long-format rugs for domestic use.

98 OPUS TEUTONICUM A Medieval Westphalian Lectern Cover

Peter Barnet

The Detroit Insitute of Alt recently acquired a rare example of German white on white embroidery, one of the subtlest and most refined of medieval needlework techniques.

101 EXHIBITIONS At the British Museum, London, a rare opportunity to focus on the rich and varied heritage of Byzantine art; Suzanis from the

Riekmers Collection at the University of Leipzig; the art of Jainism, one of India’s most ancient religions, at the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth; Persian and Mughal miniatures at the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto; long-piled Central Asian julkhyrs at Kredietbank, Brussels; quilts and other bedcovers al die Boston Museum of Fine Arts; Luxury Arts ol ihe Silk Route Empires al the Smithsonian Institution’s Freer Gallery, Washington DC; twenty years of textile acquisitions at the

Cincinnati Art Museum; Anatolian flatweaves at the Viilkerkunde Museum. Dresden; Delacroix in Morocco at the Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris.