September 2005 Newsletter
HOW WERE THE GREAT CARPETS MADE?
SOME OBSERVATIONS
Lecturer: Dr. Jon Thompson
Time: 3:00 PM
Date: Sunday, September 11, 2005
Location: Room 203-205, Mary Graydon Center at American University (next to our previous room)
This talk will set out some new ideas and insights into the history of carpets.
Dr. Thompson has agreed to lead a show-and-tell after his lecture, so this is your chance to bring an interesting "Great Carpet" to complement his lecture. Especially consider your Safavid, Ottomon, or Mogul carpet or fragments! Some of you report that there are great tribal carpets as wellif so, bring them along too.
Jon Thompson is the May Beattie Fellow in Carpet Studies at the Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford. He teaches courses on carpets and textiles of the Islamic world at Oxford and at the British Museum. His recent publications include: Silk, National Council for Culture Art and Heritage, Doha 2004; Early Safavid Carpets and Textiles in Hunt for Paradise: Court Arts of Safavid Iran 1501-1576, edited by Jon Thompson and Sheila Canby, Milan, 2003: Looms, Carpets and Talims in Technology, Tradition and Survival, edited by Richard Tapper and Keith McLachlan, London 2003; The Nomadic Peoples of Iran, edited by Richard Tapper and Jon Thompson, London, 2002.
Directions to American University:
From Virginia, cross Key Bridge into Georgetown, turn left at M Street, and go right (north) on Foxhall Road. Continue on Foxhall until it ends at Nebraska Avenue. Turn east (right) and continue along Nebraska.
From Maryland and DC, take either Wisconsin or Massachusetts Avenue and turn west onto Nebraska.
The Mary Graydon Center is on the main campus of the American University, north of Nebraska Avenue.
(For a campus map, see
http://www.american.edu/maps/campus.htm).
The Center is in the third row of buildings north of Nebraska Avenue, east of Bender Library.
FREE PARKING IS AVAILABLE IN THE NEBRASKA PARKING LOT, on the south side of Nebraska Avenue (between Massachusetts and New Mexico Avenues). From Nebraska, turn onto New Mexico Avenue. Enter the lot from New Mexico, park as close to the entrance as possible and cross Nebraska to the campus.
SEPTEMBER 25, 2005
AN AFTERNOON IN THE COUNTRY
Date: Sunday, September 25, 2005
Time: 12 noon-4:00 PM
Where: The Zimmerman's summer home in Aldie, Virginia
Ed and Cassie Zimmerman have again extended a gracious invitation for an outing to their summer home near the beautiful Virginia village of Aldie. Well have brunch and then show and tell about some of our collections.
The food part.
Our afternoon will begin at noon with a self-catered picnic. Participants are invited to bring their favorite dishes suitable for a cold picnic menu. Casseroles may be heated in the oven. Barbecue and grill facilities will not be available. A good measure for the amount to bring is that which would serve about eight people. Beverages (beer, wine and soft drinks) will be served courtesy of the International Hajji Baba Society.
The swim part.
If the weather is warm and you would like to cool off a bit before brunch, bring along your swimwear and take a dip in the pool before brunch and program.
The rugs part.
Please bring some of your carpets AND textiles that are recent acquisitions or pieces that have not been shown to our group in recent memory.
Directions to the Zimmermans:
From the Beltway (I-495), take I-66 to Route 50, where you will exit west toward Dulles Airport and Winchester. Continue west on Route 50 for 18.5 miles to the hamlet of Aldie. The road will have narrowed to 2 lanes before you reach Aldie. Just after passing through Aldie, turn north onto Virginia Route 734 (Snickersville Pike) and continue for 3.3 miles to Wainway Lane on the right (this is about two/tenths of a mile after the S-curve which crosses the creek). Turn right into Wainway Lane (a gravel road) and proceed about one-third of a mile to the two stone posts on the left which mark the entrance to the Zimmerman driveway. The driveway will have a sign saying Goosewoods. The trip will take about 45 minutes from the beltway/66 interchange.
FALL TEXTILE SYMPOSIUM
Japanese Style and the Culture of Cloth
October 21-23, 2005
The people of Japan are enamored with textiles, which have been an integral and valued part of Japanese life since ancient times. The Textile Museum's annual fall textile symposium, JAPANESE STYLE AND THE CULTURE OF CLOTH, explores the role of textiles and Japan and the variety of textile dyeing techniques for which Japan is known.
Designed to complement the exhibition Rozome Masters of Japan (on show at the TM from October 14, 2005 through February 12, 2006), the symposium begins with a festive exhibition reception on Friday evening followed by a full day of lectures and conversation with experts in the field, including exhibition curator Betsy Sterling Benjamin. The week will conclude on Sunday with demonstrations of Japanese resist-dyeing techniques, a Japanese textile show and tell, and some special surprises.
Fee: $215/members, $260/non-members, $175/students. Advance registration required.
For further information, or to register,
visit www.textilemuseum.org/symposium.htm,
call (202) 667-0441, ext. 64,
or e-mail reception@textilemuseum.org
(From TM Bulletin)
FINAL IHBS BOOK SALE
Enclosed is a current booklist for the final sale of books by the IHBS. The books are available until December 31, 2005 from the Days. Instructions for ordering are on the booklist.
MEMBERSHIP LIST OF ADDRESSES
Also enclosed with the newletter mailed to members, as promised in a previous newsletter, is a list of names, addresses, e-mail addresses, and telephone numbers of all current/paid-up IHBS members.
MARY HAMMOND SULLIVAN
On July 25, 2005, the International Hajji Baba Society and the entire rug world lost one of their greatest inspirations and a genuine character when the ever ebullient Mary Hammond Sullivan of Wilmington, Delaware, passed, just days short of her 95th birthday. In her 40 years of service at Winterthur Museum, she specialized in oriental rugs, but her indomitable spirit, keen intellect and ranging curiosity led her to 117 countries. She was a regular at museums, rug societies, conferences, operas and symphonies. At the age of 72, she managed to visit both Antarctica and the North Pole, where a helicopter had to rescue her from an ice floe. Mary Hammond grew up in New Orleans and clearly adopted a civilized lifestyle with the motto Laissez les bon temps rouler. She did, and she will be missed by her many, many friends.