Articles, reports & dispatches.
Long-form scholarship and short news from the HALI editorial desk — published continuously between the four print quarterlies.
Ladakh & Zanskar
Two types of traditional tie-dyed woollen garments from the Indian Himalayas – the liktse capes of Zanskar and Ladakhi women’s gonchas dresses – illustrate larger similarities and differences within a broader canon of regional material culture.
The Jaipur Garden Carpet
Three quarters of a century have passed since an early south Persian chahar bagh design carpet of unprecedented size and complexity was discovered in the Amber Palace of the Maharajas of Jaipur. Stored in the city’s Albert Hall Museum, at long last we are able to publish this…
Katie Welch · 14 min
Tehran's Treasure Trove
For its first forty years of existence, external circumstances prevented the Carpet Museum of Iran from revealing its treasures to the world. This year, however, a major exhibition brought the institution back to life. Hadi Maktabi reports on the show and what it means for…
David Young · 17 min
Elegant Structure: The Pattern of a Collection
In a lifetime of collecting, Lloyd Cotsen refined his own interests while expanding opportunities for artists and scholars. Throughout, he maintained a fascination for the way objects are constructed—and understood how a mere fragment can reveal the secrets of a complete…
An Ottoman Çatma at Sotheby's, London
This large Ottoman voided silk velvet and metal-thread panel ( çatma ) panel, made in Bursa or Istanbul in the late 16th century, is one of the few textiles in Sotheby's London sale of 'Arts of the Islamic world' on 25 October 2017. Estimated at £80-120,000, it measures 162…
