MOHTASHAM KASHAN
An important piece from the collection of the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg
Siawosch U. Azadi

The Hamburg Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe is almost on a par with the Berlin museum's rug collections, the exhibitions it has held and the research it has carried out. There have been a number of often ice-breaking exhibitions since the second world war, one of which was the 19711 Persische Teppiche exhibition displaying no less than one hundred and thirteen pieces2. The classical Persian carpets in the exhibition (twenty-four in all) was curated by Peter Wilhelm Meistre, the then director of the Frankfurt Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe. The pieces on display had been gathered up from ten of the country's museums, together with a large portion coming from private collections, foremost among which was Munich's Bernheimer gallery. The eighty-two post-classical carpets, on the other hand...

From the earliest times, Poland has turned east-wards to satisfy her craving for luxurious textiles. This taste for the exotic is recorded in the early seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when her kings sent ambassadors to the courts of Persia to purchase carpets for their various palaces.1 These historic associations have been reinforced in recent years by an act of extraordinary munificence on the part of one of its own citizens. As the result of a magnificent donation, the Polish nation has acquired a rich store of oriental art and has, in consequence, become an important centre for the study of eastern rugs. The foundation was formed as a result of the passionate collecting instincts of George Sahakian and his wife Terese. An Armenian citizen, resident in Brussels, where his wife still lives...

There is probably no graceful way to say this but, despite what my ACOR V program clai-med, Burlingame is not San Francisco. There are probably a lot of good reasons why ACOR V was held two miles south of San Francisco airport rather than in 'the city'. Cost and availability of space and the 'Santa Monica effect' all no doubt played a part. In fact, the hotel was perfectly adequate, the spectacular atrium display on dealers' row was achieved again; the hotel rooms were mostly fine (although my bedspread was insufficiently tribal), the food in the hotel restaurants was quite good (lots of tasty vegetarian offerings) and the hotel staff was generally friendly and responsive. One personal complaint though: the wine offered on a complimentary basis at the two hotel receptions was Glen Ellen-what the low-end airlines serve. ...