East Anatolian rug (detail), Şarkişla/Sivas region, ca. 1800
For more than forty years HALI has found and published some of the most important and beautiful rugs and textiles in the world. The many different paths we have followed to find interesting pieces—auctions, collector meetings and conferences, dealers’ exhibitions and adverts—have been a constant source of wonder and excitement in our pages. Illustrating gems we have discovered and wanted to share has tended to be confined to an appropriate context. Here we are attempting something different. The comments in this series tell of the how and where we have seen pieces, whether in California, Milan, Tokyo or elsewhere, and reflect either the voice of a trusted expert, or our experienced response or reaction to a piece, or indeed our reflections on something that has never been shown before.
The more that I see, the less I know. This came into sharp focus on a visit to Brian Morehouse in Los Angeles, where I always know that I will see rugs that are little known or under researched—in particular the rugs of central and east Anatolia, for which I hope his research will soon crystallise into a book. This is an area of collecting that remains wide open: the material and design quality of the older rugs from the region highlight the strength of its tradition but the lack of information and collecting precedent has perhaps deterred collectors from focusing on these rugs.
The present rug was hanging on the wall and demanded classification: the narrow horizontal borders in the field reflect bands of decoration on the region’s ak-chuval storage sacks, studied in depth by Josephine Powell, but the character of the field decoration and colours were unexpected. For me one of the pleasures of such a rug is the detective work required to place its origin and draw out its influences.
