There have been many wonderful shows and displays over the years but my consistent favorites are Harold Keshishian's rug morning. Not just the wealth of items on display but the effort that HK goes to put them in context for us. He started with Persian pieces so I will too.

Harold has a fascinating way of doing his displays. He builds layers on the front felt board where he pins up a first layer of textiles then a black layer of cloth and then the second layer of textiles. He then does a white layer of cloth and the third layer of textiles. On this day the Persian Textiles were the top layer.

When we were setting up the display I took one look at this and asked Harold if it was Reshti. HK was pleased I recognised it and said that he betted that I had never touched one before. I told him he was right but that small detail did not stop me from writing the Guide to Resht Textiles.

My apologies but this image does not do the piece justice. Reshti Textiles have intricate detail and delicate color which is present but not evident in this image.

N.B. What is a Resht Textile

These fragments are from a Persian woman's pantaloons that were made into pillows.

N. B. When we use Pantaloon in this context we are referring to a garment that are called Shalvar. Please visit The Shalvar or Persian Pantaloon.

Harold pointed out the end stripe at the bottom of this fragment. This would have been the waist.

Harold brought in a magnificent Senneh Kilim. It had a boteh design that we also see in his Shahsavan Bijar Sumac. Harold purchased the Senneh Kilim from the grandson of the original owner who supplied documentation that his grandparents had purchased it on their honeymoon in Jerusalem in 1901.

Here we see the Shahsavan Bijar Sumac pinned over the Sennah Kilim. One interesting thing Harold pointed out was that the right border was not original. Look at the scan closely below and you can see the stitches. What Harold did not point out however was that the replacement piece was either a top of bottom piece rather than a side. Notice that the sumac runs in different directions on each side. Th repair is splendid but where is the Sumac it was taken from.

N.B. The difference between Kilim and Sumac

These are more of the pantaloon fragments

This is a Safavid fragment that combines silk with a great deal of silver metal thread. Harold observed that this is the sort of fabric from which an ambassadors coat would be made. I was a bit surprised when Harold said Safavid because I was thinking Mughal because of the naturalistic level of detail in the leaves. But Harold knows a great deal more about these than I do.

As you can see it is a poor shot so refer to the detail below.

Here is a detail of a image that I believe to be the same lampas fragment. Since I can show a better degree of detail I am using it here. The main figure in this scene figure is a male as signified by the taj and turban attended to by a young boy.

Recently a comparable fragment was sold at Sotheby's London1. They estimated the age of that fragment as late 16th century which to me seems late. The turban is tied in a manner that would have been out of style by the late 16th century. The same for the coat the styles are appropriate to circa 1550. The attendant is a Christian as signified by his headgear. At that point in time many attendants came from the Georgian Kingdom of Kartli which was a Persian vassal state. There has been speculation that some of the youths could be Armenian. (Not by Harold) While possible I have not seen any reason to assert or deny this. The origin of this piece is difficult to place as well. The artistic style is early for Khorasan which only blossomed as a area of court production a little later. But by the same token it is later than we usually see for Tabriz. So then do we say, Qazvin? I do not know but I am inclined to doubt it. I would say Tabriz if I had to guess.

As an afterthought I may as well thrown in Plate 27/T39 in Spuhler's Islamic Carpets and Textiles in the Keir Collection3. The belt on the main figure is related to that of the attendant in this piece. The turban is similar as is the coat, Spuhler dates this to the second half of the sixteenth century. What Spuhler neglects to point out is that the art work in Plate 27/T39 is in the Shiraz manner (while the Keshishian fragment is not.)

1. Lampas: This is an old technique of supplementary weft patterning. The warps are silk are silk and the wefts are silk and or metal wrapped silk. This differs from the Moorish Lampas from Spain that are silk on linen. Because of the long front float of the wefts there is a perceptible three dimensionality to the pattern while the fields are most often a taffeta weave The cloth consequently tends to be rather heavy. The technique was used as early as the 10th century but it came into vogue in the 13th century and peaked in the sixteenth century. The silk on silk patterning is usually seen as Persian.

2. Arts of the Islamic World, SALE L06220 LOT 125, SESSION 1 | 05 Apr 06 10:30 AM. London, New Bond Street, A FINE AND RARE SAFAVID SILK TEXTILE FRAGMENT, PERSIA, LATE 16TH CENTURY

3. Friedrich Spuhler, Islamic Carpets and Textiles in the Keir Collection (London: Faber and Faber, 1978)

N.B. Harold commented that we really should mention Carol Bier's Woven from the Soul, Spun from the Heart, Textile Arts of Safavid and Qajar Iran. Washington: Textile Museum 1987 and he is right. Nice book from a nice Lady. Milton Sonday's section dealing with structure and the like is excellent. I am not totally comfortable with his timeline of color usage

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