Harold Keshishian's Textile Rug
Morning The Red Collection
The highlight of Harold
Keshishian's rug morning was the veritable explosion
of brilliant red textiles that he closed with. The one
directly behind Harold is about 400 years old. The one
all the way to the right is new from a company in Los
Angeles California.
Harold was fortunate to be joined by
his two sons Christopher (left) and Kirk on the right.
Harold showed us that this magnificent
piece that appears to be one piece at first glance is
actually nine pieces.
One or nine made no difference to me as
I found this one of the most visually striking pieces in
the show.
Here we have two surprises at least to
me. On the left Christopher is holding up a Venetian
Yastik and on the right Kirk is holding up a Yastik that
is either Venetian or Ottoman. I never equated Venice
with Yastiks.
Often we think of Venice as a city in
Italy which it is. However at the peak of it's military
prowess Venice controlled islands in the Aegean Sea and
contended with first the Byzantine and then the Ottoman
empire for control of Mediterranean Sea trading routes.
Venice at various times maintained a Black Sea trading
station.
Here Harold demonstrates a fragment
that was the sleeve of and Ottoman jacket. In the
background is a Caucasian silk Jajim. Harold mentioned
that when he first collected it he thought it was Italian
because of the fineness but he later determined that it
was Caucasian.
Harold is showing us a servants jacket.
Ottoman dignitaries would often have a young servant
often Albanian who would attend to them. This is what
they would have worn.
Oriental Rugs the O'Connell Guide
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