Nov
12
2007
This past week, one of the most outstanding textiles in the Nazmiyal Collection, a splendid antique Kashmir shawl of the eighteenth century, went on display at New York’s Asia Society as part of a special exhibition, “The Arts of Kashmir.” This exhibition represents a major international effort involving loans from collections all over the world. It is the first major exhibition entirely devoted to the arts of Kashmir from late antiquity up to the present time, covering media of every kind. Continue Reading »
Popularity: 100% [?]
Oct
22
2007
Interior designer Philip La Bossiere asserts, “I am not a beige guy in any sense of the word” in reference to both his colorful interiors and his exuberant personality. He has spent the past twenty-plus years cultivating his reputation as a sincere, hands-on decorator with timeless and unexpected design schemes. Always excited by Continental furniture, either at auction or abroad, La Bossiere prefers strong contrasts, rich color schemes, and a dash of the exotic. He was educated at Parsons School of Design, and in apprenticeship to renowned designer David Barrett, where he learned to execute designs that are timeless without ever feeling conservative. read more…
Popularity: 77% [?]
Oct
09
2007
Oriental Rugs and carpets have always appeared as just that - a cultural product of the East with all the exotic associations that this conjures up. Initially one thinks of the weavers themselves working over their looms in the cities and towns of Persia or Turkey, and then the journey of the carpets into the commercial emporia or bazaars of such countries. The wonderful late nineteenth-century painting by Jean-Leon Gerome, “The Rug Merchant,” captures this exotic bygone age rather effectively. Even today travelers to Persia and Turkey can still attest to the vitality of the rug markets in places like Tabriz, Konya, Izmir, and, of course, Istanbul. But truth be told, no place in the Middle East can claim to be the center or capital of the international rug market nowadays, at least not in the realm of antique pieces. This title must go to London and even more to New York. The immediate reason for this is the presence there of major International auction houses with highly developed rug departments. Houses of this kind exist in Europe as well, but even they would yield pride of place New York and London if pressed. Continue Reading »
Popularity: 39% [?]
Oct
04
2007
A Subtle Play of Opposites
From a relatively early time in the Ottoman period, the town of Oushak in westernTurkey has been a major center of rug production. Many of the great masterpieces of early Turkish carpet weaving from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries have been attributed to this center. The great star and medallion Oushak carpets of the late fifteenth to seventeenth century were made there, and it is even possible that the various carpets of the so-called “Holbein” type of family were products of Oushak as well. To say the very least, Oushak has a major claim to a long and distinguished tradition of rug weaving which has continued right up into modern times.
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Popularity: 28% [?]
Jun
28
2007
This week Nazmiyal opened its elegant new Manhattan gallery. Situated at 31 East 32nd Street on the second floor, the new location has over five thousand square feet of continuous, looming space that makes it possible to display beautiful room-size and oversize rugs and carpets in the setting that they deserve. The space is bathed in natural light as well as abundant track lighting, with elegant hardwood floors that stretch for over eighty five feet. Read more …
Popularity: 24% [?]
May
15
2007
Written by Betsy Murphy
Tuesday, 15 May 2007
The annual meeting of the International Conference on Oriental Carpets is always an exciting event, but when it is held in Istanbul, one of the most exotic and romantic cities in Europe, and a center of carpet production and commerce for the past five hundred years or more, ICOC is simply “carpet heaven.” I stayed in the lovely Sultanahment district, the oldest part of the Ottoman city, where there were a number of related exhibitions. The TIEM (Turk ve Islam Eserleri Muzesi) mounted a spectacular show of early carpets from the Seljuk period, as well as various other oversize court carpets, Ushaks, etc. It was simply divine. The TIEM also put up an amazing selection of Ikats from the collection of Mehmet Cetinkaya. The Vakiflar Museum had two exhibitions of their incredible collection of early rugs as well, one on pile carpets, and one just for kilims. In conjunction with all this the Yildiz Palace held a memorial exhibition of kilims from the personal collection of the renowned expert Josephine Powell, who passed away last March.
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Popularity: 29% [?]
Apr
25
2007
One of the most familiar labels applied to Oriental rugs and carpets, antique and new alike, is the term “tribal.” The label evokes a range of associations, most of which suggest something romantically antithetical to our modern western civilized or urban existence. Tribal rugs were or are presumably made by people with a tribal social organization, very likely nomads dwelling in tents, moving from place to place with the herds of sheep and goats that provided the wool for therugs. Such rugs are thought to be woven in designs that have been handed down faithfully in tribal tradition with little or no change for generations beyond recall. Read the full article, What is a Tribal or Nomadic Rug?
Popularity: 24% [?]
