This dramatic carpet dominated the soaring vertical gallery wall in the second iteration of The Textile Museum's centenary exhibition 'Enduring Traditions', which closed on 20 December 2025 (1,2).
In his remarks at the exhibition reception, Bruce Baganz, chair of the museum's board of trustees, noted the carpet's circuitous route leading to its inevitable arrival as part of the museum's collection. The carpet was part of the collection of the museum's founder, George Hewitt Myers, as is evidenced by a black-and-white photograph in the TM archive showing it on the floor of his house.
However, it was never accessioned to the museum, and was later moved along with other household items to a family home in Virginia. According to the renowned authority Harold Keshishian, it was the only carpet that survived from that property after a flood, after which it entered his own collection, before he bequeathed it to the museum. Indeed, Charles Grant Ellis published it as plate 22 in his book Early Caucasian Rugs on the occasion of the museum's 50th anniversary in 1976; he describes it there as inventory number R2.53 in the Myers collection.
