SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA RUG SOCIETY

February Newsletter 2008

Next Meeting

From Mughal Court to Turkmen Tradition

The Mughal Floral Style and

Its Manifestation in Turkmen Weavings

Speaker: Jurg Rageth, Past President, Basel Rug Society

March 5^th, 2008

Krimsa Gallery

2190 Union Street, San Francisco

Reception 6:30 pm, Slide Lecture 7:15-8:30

Show and Tell: Turkmen Floral Weavings

We are pleased to have Jurg Rageth, one of the cutting-edge researchers in Central Asian carpets, return to the Bay Area to give us his ideas on the origins of Turkmen carpets. This is particularly appropriate given the deYoung Museum’s current exhibit which I hope everyone has had a chance to see at least once. That exhibit shows off several “Middle Amu Darya” weavings (once the so-called “Ersari”) that incorporate floral and other Persianate designs, the most famous of which is the Mina Khani pattern. There is no doubt that the classical Persian garden carpets had an influence on the weavers of the Middle Amu Darya.

Jurg summarizes his talk as follows:

The origin of Turkmen carpet design is a delicate subject. The rich variety of designs in the Turkmen tradition has often been noted. It has been suggested that some patterns reach back to Bronze Age Namazga III pottery from Karatepe in Northeast Khurasan. In addition to indigenous patterns, diverse foreign influences have occurred over a long period of time. One of the patterns that will be discussed is probably a much later addition to the canon of Turkmen carpet design.

We will cast light on a design element adapted relatively late from the Persian tradition. A single tent band (ak yup) and a small group of five early Turkmen carpets ( khali) will be considered. All examples contain an unusual flower design which, because of its rounded shapes and naturalistic forms, is somehow “out of place" in the repertoire of geometrical Turkmen carpet patterns. This talk will not only describe similarities of this Turkmen flower pattern to the mid 17^th century Mughal flower style, but also suggest a contemporary date of production for two of the pieces. The impact of the 17^th century Mughal flower style on later 18^th and 19^th century Yomut and Ersari weavings was probably much stronger than has usually been attributed.

About the Speaker: Jurg Rageth is an independent oriental carpet and textile researcher based in Richen, Switzerland. He has been involved with radiocarbon dating and dye analysis since 1995 and has published several articles on these subjects. This talk represents part of his recent work for a forthcoming publication on Turkmen carpets of Central Asia. As head of the Basel Rug Society he was the organizer of numerous carpet and textile symposia, which have been published under his imprint.

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Forthcoming Events – Mark Your Calendars!

February through March. Oasis Imagery: Carpets from Gansu and East Turkestan at the gallery of SFBARS Board member Sandra Whitman. The exhibition will consist of some 30-40 pieces dating from the late 18th through the early 20th centuries. The exhibit will be set up so that Ningxia and Gansu carpets can be compared, and examples of Kashgar, Khotan, Aksu and Yarkand carpets will allow visitors easily to see the structural differences. There will be examples of RKO carpets from the various regions which will highlight structural, composition and stylistic and esthetic differences in the weaving groups. The exhibit will encompass large and small format avian carpets in medallion, pomegranate tree of life, coffered and uncoffered gul designs from Khotan along with a fabulous fake for education purposes. 361 Oak Street, San Francisco, CA 94102 (415-861-4477).

February 26, 2008, 7:00 pm. Gallery talk on “Oasis Imagery: Carpets from Gansu and East Turkestan.” Whitman Gallery, 361 Oak Street, San Francisco.

February 28, 2007, 10:30 am. Walk-through of exhibition, Oasis Imagery. Whitman Gallery, 361 Oak Street, San Francisco.

March 14, 2008, 6:30 pm. Good–Better--Best, Koret Auditorium of the DeYoung Museum. A panel on Turkmen carpet connoisseurship moderated by Seattle collector Fred Ingham. Panelists include S. Peter Poullada and Carol Bier. A lively discussion from three different points of view (collector, curator, and dealer) on what makes a carpet great versus merely good. Co-sponsored by SFBARS. For further information call Textile Department or Diane Mott at 415-750-7609.

March 22, 2008, 10:00 am. Design and Pattern in the Textile Arts of Central Asia. Speaker: Carol Bier, former curator at the Textile Museum in Washington DC. Textile Arts Council, Koret Auditorium, DeYoung Museum. For further information contact TAC website at tac@famsf.org or phone 415-750-3627.

tell of diverse Anatolian Prayer Kilims from the collections of Peter Pap and SFBARS Members. This is a follow up to the very successful discussion and show and tell in 2006 at Pap's Gallery on Anatolian prayer carpets.

People of the Wind about the Bakhtiyari tribal migration.

OUTSIDE THE BAY AREA

Woven Splendor from Timbuktu to Tibet. An exhibit and symposium celebrating the 75th Anniversary of the New York Hajji Baba Club. Opens April 11, 2008 at the NY Historical Society. For information on the exhibit and the lectures contact www.hajji75.org. Reservations are required for the gala reception and the symposium.

For long term planners, the date of the ACOR 9 conference has been set for Thursday, April 30, through Sunday, May 3, 2009, at the Millennium Hotel in downtown St. Louis, Missouri. Watch their website www.acor-rugs.org for updates as plans develop.

Members: If you know of upcoming lectures, exhibitions, etc. of potential interest to the SFBARS membership, please send the information to elizabeth.shedd@att.net.

San Francisco

Bay Area

Rug Society

6 Muir Avenue
Piedmont, CA 94610