As a first-time ICOC-goer the aspect of the Philadelphia conference which struck me most was the friendly, jovial and unpretentious atmosphere. Quite mistakenly, I had for some reason come to expect something drier and more academic. Perhaps the fact that so many people from different professions (piano tuners, urologists, a judge and many more) meet to share one interest leads to this ambience of informality and friendliness. Even during the various lectures, some of the world's leading carpet experts let their hair down to engage in informal and informative discussion. Entirely oblivious prior to the ICOC to the infectious passion felt by so many rug buffs ("tapetologist" as some would have us believe) ...

A recent exhibition displayed, for the first time, a wonderful collection of textiles from the peoples of Guatemala. These were collected towards the end of the last century by eminent archaeolog and scholar Alfred Percival Maudslay. Krystyna Deuss studies their evolution from the pre-Columbian period to today.

On 17 February, the Victoria & Albert Museum opened its display of Maudslay's Guatemalan Indian weavings, the first time this collection has been shown to the general public. Alfred Percival Maudslay (1850-1931) was an eminent scholar and archaeologist who made...

A trip to one of the most beautiful Lurs villages in Persia: Harsin. This article studies the flat-weaving of a population whose unique and fascinating designs appear to be taken from a manual of heraldry.

Even when it was called Ecbatana, Hamadan was an important market centre, a natural cross-roads for some of the main routes through Persia. Today, its modern bazaar is still full of surprises and no rug enthusiast travelling through Iran should miss out on a prolonged tour of the shops under the arcades. What's more, in the bazaar of Hamadan you can find the textiles of one of the most active, rural rug-weaving regions, so varied as to arouse interest even in the most disenchanted visitor. A first glance offers the usual selection of decidedly commercial products, dominated by the monotonous repetition of blue and red geometric designs...