AN AMERICAN COLLECTOR AT 11th I.C.O.C.
John Howe

ANATOLIAN RUGS FROM TRANSYLVANIAN CHURCHES
An interview with Stefano Ionescu

A detailed report of the latest I.C.O.C. meeting in Istanbul, complete with news about the conferences, exhibitions and events.This treatment of ICOC XI will, necessarily, be different from others you may read. This was my first trip to Turkey; in fact, my wife and I had not previously visited a country the language of which we do not speak (although “England” is a possible addition). As a collector, I have a general familiarity with Turkey’s geography and of the types of pile and flat woven pieces that were woven in particular locations. Similarly, I am familiar with the broad sweep of Turkey’s history. The waves of Central Asians that came into its northwest in the 10th and 12th centuries. Facets of the seven-hundred year Ottoman Empire. And, of course, of Atatürk at the end, whose face is still everywhere.
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The churches of Transylvania are home to an important treasury of Anatolian rugs which are an essential part of the ceremonial furnishings; in this interview, Stefano Ionescu talks of the origins and features of these collections.One of the most highly appreciated and visited exhibitions of the many organised in Istanbul for the 9th I.C.O.C., was that entitled In Praise of God: Anatolian Rugs in Transylvanian Churches, 1500-1750, curated by Nazan Ölçer and Michael Franses and held at the Sakip Sabanci Museum, the museum of one of the universities of Istanbul. Appealingly laid out, it comprised about 40 rugs from churches and museums, all bearing witness to that unusual group of rugs generally listed as Transylvanian and which document the special role Oriental rugs, and Anatolian ones in particular, played in Transylvania and the extent of trade in these articles. Ghereh has interviewed Stefano Ionescu, author of Antichi Tappeti Ottomani in Transylvania on the subject of these Transylvanian rugs and the situation as regards recent studies and research.
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The fine costume of the Saudi kingdom document the unexpected refinement and technical quality of the country’s fabrics, made up into garments designed to be cool and comfortable.It is the aim of this article to focus a spotlight on a subject virtually unknown in Europe and North America: the variety and beauty of tribal dress once worn in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. To a large extent, the subject is unknown within the Kingdom itself, yet it is one obviously rich in colour and pattern. To illustrate the surprising range of traditional dress worn in the first part of the 20th century, six garments have been chosen from a relatively small area of the Kingdom. These belonged to the women of different tribal groups, one nomadic and the others settled, living along the coastal area between Medina in the north and Taif in the South.
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