HALI NEWSLETTER No. 439

[View this email in your browser]( A. Davoodzadeh & Son is a second-generation antique and decorative rug business located in midtown Manhattan, New York. Please visit the showroom to view a wide selection of antique, decorative and tribal rugs in a range of sizes. Contact A. Davoodzadeh & Son – Antique Rugs NYC for more information: Address: 25 West 31st Street, Suite 502, T: 212-268-5876 New York, NY 10001 E: davoodzadehrugs@aol.com [Visit A. Davoodzadeh & Son online.]( [Follow A. Davoodzadeh & Son on Instagram]( [News] 'Handstitched Worlds: The Cartography of Quilts' is showing at the George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum in Washington D.C. until 23 December 2023. Drawing from the collection of the organising institution, The American Folk Art Museum, the exhibition ‘invites viewers to read quilts as maps that give shape to our world’, offering a path to a deeper understanding of the cultural fabric of North America. Quilts dating from the 19th to the 21st centuries are on show, including Map Quilt from 1886 (above). Image courtesy of the American Folk Art Museum. Photo: Schecter Lee. [Find out more.]( Hadi Maktabi has just launched 'Maktabi Outlet', an online store reflecting four generations of global experience, quality control and client satisfaction. The website documents thousands of exquisite carpets bought and carefully selected from all across Asia by the Maktabi family that are now available for purchase. While some were acquired by Hadi Maktabi himself, the majority were purchased by his father and grandfather between 1930–1990. Many are therefore in a relatively new condition, despite having been made in the middle of the last century, and they retain a distinctive charm and aesthetic appeal that set them apart from many rugs circulating today. Numerous pieces are being offered at a significantly reduced rate and HALI readers can benefit from free worldwide shipping during November by entering the code HADIxHALI at checkout. [Find out more about the Maktabi Outlet online.]( [Follow the Maktabi Outlet on Instagram.]( [News] The Hajji Baba Research Fellowship Committee has unanimously chosen Sarah Molina as its 2023/24 Hajji Baba Club Research Fellow. Molina is a fifth-year PhD candidate in the history of art and architecture at Harvard University and her dissertation is titled ‘The Poetics of Space: How Safavid Carpets Shaped the Early Modern Islamic World (1539-1672)’. It explores ‘how Safavid carpets mediated experiences of space in the early modern Islamic world... not only reconstituting the architectural contexts of these carpets but also examining how such objects actively produced new spaces’. The $7,500 grant will allow her to visit carpet collections in the US to further her research. Image courtesy of The David Collection, Copenhagen. [Learn more about Sarah Molina and past fellows.]( Viscontea Casa d’Aste will hold its 'Oriental Carpets and Textiles' auction on 30 November 2023, from 3pm CEST. Preview the sale on 24 and 27–29 November from 10am–6pm. Viewings on 25 November are by appointment only. This auction is an opportunity for collectors, dealers, individuals, interior designers and scholars to find outstanding deals on carpets and textiles of many sizes and types. Among the lots of note are a Bakhshaish silk, a few Kashan Mohtashem carpets, a Heriz Serapi, an Amristar, a Tekke main carpet, an Elazig carpet and tribal textiles. Other noteworthy pieces are large carpets, including a Ningxia, a Savonnerie and an Ushak. [View the sale.]( [Register to bid.]( [News] Continuing our exploration of woven bags, the focus of this week's segment of [#RugFactFriday]( is saddle bags. HALI 195 from Spring 2018 features an article on the topic from collector and long-time connoisseur of 19th-century Transcaucasian weaving, Herbert Exner. He begins by explaining that ‘khorjin (double saddle bags) are an important part of the wide variety of flexible containers made and used by nomadic pastoralists all over the Near East and Central Asia. During the annual tribal migrations from summer camps to winter camps and back, double saddle bags carried, on donkey back, all kinds of smaller household goods, while larger, three-dimensional bedding bags called mafrash were used for bulkier items. On the camp ground and in the tent khorjin were used as pillows or for storing household items.’ He goes on to discuss how ‘all the conditions and materials for their making by the tribe’s grandmothers, mothers and daughters were available near their tents: wool from sheep, wood for spindles and looms, dyestuffs made from roots, bark or leaves and, not least, the knowledge, skills and creativity of the weavers.’ Exner then delineates the process of their manufacture, explaining ‘the great majority of Shahsavan khorjin are made in weft-faced sumakh technique by wrapping pattern wefts over warps, generally forward over four warps and back under two. To stabilise the weave, one or two weft shoots follow after each pattern row. The reverse side is almost always made in weft-faced kilim stripes of different colours. All the wool is naturally dyed.’ This brings him to the focus of his article, a selection of 19th-century khorjin with interrelated designs which he goes on to compare and categorise. Above: Double saddle bag (khjorjin), Shahsavan tribe (?), Khamseh region, northwestern Iran, circa 1875. The Met, 2015.490.35, Gift of Inger G. and William B. Ginsberg, 2015 [Buy a digital subscription to read the full article in HALI 195.]( [Follow Us] [Facebook]( [Facebook]( [Instagram]( [Instagram]( [Been forwarded this email and want to receive it regularly? Subscribe to this newsletter]( Copyright © 2023, Hali Publications Ltd., All rights reserved. [unsubscribe from this list]( [update subscription preferences](