Timbuktu to Tibet

Prolific oriental rug author Jon Thompson has a massive and beautiful new exhibition catalog of rugs from Hajji Baba members. It is quite a value having almost 400 color illustrations and weighing in at 6 lbs.

In Spring 2008, the oldest museum in New York City, the New York Historical Society on Central Park West, celebrates the 75th Anniversary of the Hajji Baba Club, the USA's first and best-known rug and textile society, with diverse display of more than one hundred carpets and textiles, personally selected by the author from the myriad collections of Club members past and present. Known for their many generous donations to museums across the country, and their ongoing contributions to international carpet and textile study, successive generations of members have, since the foundation of the Club in 1932, broadened their collecting interests to include a great diversity of different textiles, mainly from Asia and Africa. Timbuktu to Tibet accompanies the New York Historical Society show, but is much more than an exhibition catalogue. All the exhibits are published in high quality color, and Dr Thompson's text is accompanied by more than two hundred additional historic, ethnographic and contextual images, most previously unpublished, showing how the objects were made and used, the people who made them, and their way of life. The book opens with a discursive history of the Club by the distinguished historian Thomas J. Farnham, bringing the total number of illustrations to almost four hundred.

There is also a YouTube video of the exhibition:

Persian Piled Bags

When I go to an Asian or tribal arts show where John Collins of The Collins Gallery is displaying his rugs and after a hale greeting I pick up and flip through the printed catalog he makes specifically for the show. Every year the quality of these catalogs has improved thanks to his farsighted use of digital printing technology.

After these one-off catalogs and in part due to to the successful sales exhibition of an important private collection he has released his first commercial publication in 15 years. Persian Piled Weaving: A Collection of Non-Urban Piled Bags shows 47 Persian piled pieces and includes close-ups of the back of the rugs, with Collins' usual quality technical analysis and commentary similar to his other publications.

RugBooks.com is Green!

For years we've been ahead of the Green curve. We deal primarily in previously owned books (reuse is one of the "3 Rs") and use recycled shipping materials (cardboard boxes come in and often the same ones go out. Ditto with bubble wrap. Don't be surprised to see egg cartons padding your books either). Our work area is lit with compact fluorescents and we only go to the post office 3 days a week thus saving energy. Our shipping department and book repair laboratory are both in-house. We are green and it saves us green.

Modern Textile Art

If contemporary fabric art turns your head and names like Lia Cook and Arturo Alonzo Sandoval send you atwitter check out our new Contemporary Fabric Art section.

New new new!

Haven't had time to post. Madly adding new books. If you're into the textile arts of Indonesia, Africa, India, Southeast Asia and/or Central America check out the new titles I've been adding. -Wes

Talismans of the Turkoman: Traditions of a Warrior Tribe

The Coronado Historical Association's Museum and History of Art is holding an exhibition March 14-May 26, 2008 on Turkmen textiles and jewelry. The exhibit is compiled from a single private collection and this will be the first time most of the pieces have been on display to the public.

Coronado island is located in the San Diego Bay and connected to the mainland by the Coronado-San Diego Bay Bridge and hwy 75.

Belmont, Mass.

I know it's a little "level one" but I'm a sucker for Oriental rugs, textiles, etc. having their place in Web 2.0 Here's an article from the Belmont Citizen-Herald with a YouTube video at the bottom.