| I
was reading The Sotheby's Catalog Fine Oriental
and European Carpets, April 7, 1992. New York and
I saw:
Senneh_Kilim_Prayer_Kilim_Circa_1875_Sotheby's
New York Lot_120. The "hook" for me
was that the Senneh_Kilim
made me think of
Possibly Unique Garrus Sumak by R. John Howe on
www.Turkotek.com. God love that John Howe, he is
always worth reading so from Sotheby's catalog to
Howe on Turkotek I called Harold Keshishian to
let me see his Shahsavan Bijar Sumac. Everybody
else calls it a Garrus Sumac but I call it a
Bijar. I do this because Garrus is a Kurdish
tribe and Shahsavan is separate ethno-linguistic
group. I solve this by using Bijar as a place
name rather than an ethnic identity. Gerrus as a
place does not exist except on rug maps.
(N.B. This calls to mind a visit to see a
curator at the Sackler Gallery of the Smithsonian
many years ago. I was disagreeing with the
opinion of one of her predecessors in the
attribution of an early Safavid painting. She
looked at me with exasperation and said,
"Mr. O'Connell you have every right to think
so... But no one else agrees. )
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