Show your library!

[Jeff Sun]

The forum is "Show and Tell"...but doesn't exactly say what we are showing and telling about. So here is a new one. If you like carpets, chances are you have a few, or more than a few books on the topic. Show me your library!

Here is a bit of mine:

http://i1361.photobucket.co m/albums/r661/feigepai/IMG_0665_zpsupfauurq .jpg

[Rich Larkin]

Hi Jeff,

I see now why you are running circles around everybody on the Chinese and Tibetan front! I can match you at H. A. Lorentz, but that's about it.

It will be interesting to see what shows up in answer to your invitation.

Rich

[Lloyd Kannenberg]

Hi Jeff,

Your library is impressive as well as organized! A picture of my rug library would be embarrassing. It runs to something over 125 books, plus a run of HALI, a run of the Textile Museum Journal, and volumes 8-16 of Oriental Rug Review. Bookshelves have given way more than once.

Lloyd Kannenberg

[Chuck Wagner]

Hi Jeff,

Here's about 80% of ours; the others are not easily accessible right now, but include the Persian and Turkish volumes from Oriental Rugs, Opie's book on tribal rugs, Neff & Maggs, O'Bannon's book on Turkoman Rugs, and a respectable pile of ORR's.

http://www.turkotek.com/show_and_tell/libw1.jpg

http://www.turkotek.com/show_and_tell/clib2a.jpg

Chuck Wagner

[Kay Dee]

Jeff,

Nice to see someone else as interested as I in Tibetan area rugs!

Seems I have all the books I can see in your collection (and maybe? a few more :) ) save for Antique Carpets of China, and I can't quite discern what the one is that is between The Piccus Collection and Temple Household Horseback. What is the one in-between if I may ask?

And re Antique Carpets of China. Is that by Lu Hongqi? If so, worth getting (as my interest of course includes central and western 'Chinese' rugs)?

PS. And let me also say here what a lovely pair (no less!) of pillar carpets in your other thread re 'lighting'. Have several myself, but no pairs. :mad:

Kay

[Joel Greifinger]

Hi Jeff,

My rug book situation sounds a lot like Lloyd's. I've got around 115 books in addition to Hali (far from a complete run), most of the Oriental Rug Review back to Vol III, the issues of Carpet Collector, a few Ghereh, and a haphazard selection of auction and ICOC catalogs. The only organization is proximity to one another in the two rooms where they share shelf space. :rolleyes:

Joel Greifinger

[Jeff Sun]

Jeff,

Nice to see someone else as interested as I in Tibetan area rugs!

Seems I have all the books I can see in your collection (and maybe? a few more :) ) save for Antique Carpets of China, and I can't quite discern what the one is that is between The Piccus Collection and Temple Household Horseback. What is the one in-between if I may ask?

And re Antique Carpets of China. Is that by Lu Hongqi? If so, worth getting (as my interest of course includes central and western 'Chinese' rugs)?

PS. And let me also say here what a lovely pair (no less!) of pillar carpets in your other thread re 'lighting'. Have several myself, but no pairs. :mad:

Kay

Hi Kay!

The one between The Piccus Collection and Temple, Household and Horseback is actually 2 books:

"Tibet Tappeti" an Italian exhibit catalog and...
"Woven Jewels/ Tibetan Rugs from Southern California Collections".

The latter is an interesting choice of names as another book on my shelf is "Vanishing Jewels"...but about Turkmen.

Hong Qi's book is well worth getting. By western standards it's a much better quality book than most available. The paper, the binding and of course the pictures are all rather good. Better than a lot of other books on the shelf.

However, the English translations leave a lot to be desired.

Xinjiang and Tibet are both covered. Hong Qi's explanation of the origin of weaving in China, is um...unique. Quite China-centric. But I would expect no less from a man whose name translates to "Red Flag Lu".

Another book on my shelf (but not in the picture) is "Carpets in the Collection of the Palace Museum" This is a heavy tome and the text is all Chinese, but the rugs are all of Imperial origin. Not the kind of stuff you would find on ebay. In the US this book goes for big bucks, however on Taobao, or one of the Taobao middle-men like buytome, you can pick it up for about $70

So...now I have to see what is on YOUR shelf!.

[Jeff Sun]

Hi Jeff,

Here's about 80% of ours; the others are not easily accessible right now, but include the Persian and Turkish volumes from Oriental Rugs, Opie's book on tribal rugs, Neff & Maggs, O'Bannon's book on Turkoman Rugs, and a respectable pile of ORR's.

http://www.turkotek.com/show_and_tell/libw1.jpg

Chuck Wagner

Nice collection Chuck! I see we have some of the same books. But I have to ask: What is "Kings, Heroes and Lovers" ???;)

[Rich Larkin]

Hi Jeff,

These two shots make up about 85% of my books and exhibition catalogs.

http://www.turkotek.com/show_and_tell/rug_library_1.jpg

http://www.turkotek.com/show_and_tell/rug_library_2.jpg


I see your dust jackets are in much better shape than most of mine. Let’s say mine have taken a lot of abuse!

Besides what’s in the pics, I have all the HALIs from Vol. 1 to about Vol. 60; probably most of the ORRs (not including the ones on newsprint, which I used to have, until a fiend who shall remain nameless disposed of them!!! :cry:); and a motley collection of Textile Museum Journals, auction catalogs, and the like.

How about this: I was on vacation in the Carolinas in the south of the USA in July when my cell phone went off. It was my brother reporting from a flea market on Cape Cod in New England. The flea market was shutting down and one dealer had about a hundred oriental rug auction catalogs he hadn’t sold. He was leaving for the west coast and didn’t want to carry them out there. Did my brother want to take them? My brother’s question was, did I want them? Holy mackerel! So, that set is now in my library as well. I’m usually not that lucky.

Rich

P. S.: This is a fun thread. :cheers:

[Chuck Wagner]

Hi Jeff,

Kings, Heroes and Lovers is a book by Parviz Tanavoli that focuses on figural rugs with royalty figures (mainly the shahs), characters from Persian literature, religious figures (dervishes, etc) and a few Persian lion rugs.

It also has his exceptionally well done chapter on rug structure with very good illustrations.

I bought it because I have a couple rugs with dervishes (and their paraphernalia) on them, and a Ferdows rug with the Khusraaw & Shirin folk story motif on it, and I was interested in learning more about them.

Rich,

We'll be moving back in New England in a month; then it won't be so easy to find such deals....:bravo:

Regards
Chuck Wagner

[Kay Dee]

Hi Kay!

The one between The Piccus Collection and Temple, Household and Horseback is actually 2 books:

"Tibet Tappeti" an Italian exhibit catalog and...
"Woven Jewels/ Tibetan Rugs from Southern California Collections".

The latter is an interesting choice of names as another book on my shelf is "Vanishing Jewels"...but about Turkmen.

Hong Qi's book is well worth getting. By western standards it's a much better quality book than most available. The paper, the binding and of course the pictures are all rather good. Better than a lot of other books on the shelf.

However, the English translations leave a lot to be desired.

Xinjiang and Tibet are both covered. Hong Qi's explanation of the origin of weaving in China, is um...unique. Quite China-centric. But I would expect no less from a man whose name translates to "Red Flag Lu".

Another book on my shelf (but not in the picture) is "Carpets in the Collection of the Palace Museum" This is a heavy tome and the text is all Chinese, but the rugs are all of Imperial origin. Not the kind of stuff you would find on ebay. In the US this book goes for big bucks, however on Taobao, or one of the Taobao middle-men like buytome, you can pick it up for about $70

So...now I have to see what is on YOUR shelf!.

Hi Jeff,

Thanks for the update!

Unfortunately, as much as I would like to ‘show you mine’ I am disappointed to say that my extensive collection (primarily on Tibetan and central/western Chinese, but with a good selection of books orientated on the Afghan 'area' ) remain stored elsewhere, while I now reside in Europe. Maybe one day I’ll ship em all over, but till then I’ll have to do with the few Tibetan area orientated ones I have ‘doubled up’ on which I have managed to pick up 2nd hand relatively cheaply (and some not so) since I have been ‘over here’.

Best I can do is say I have all I can see of yours 'cept Red Flag Lu’s, which I will now look at procuring.

PS. As an afterthought I would like to highly recommend to you, given your interest in Tibetan carpets, and hence one might assume Tibet in general - that is if you don't already have same - a relatively new book (first pub. 2015) called A Historical Atlas of Tibet by Karl Ryavec. Although it has nothing to do with carpets per se - save covering in exquisite map detail the areas they are made - the extreme high quality of the newly drawn never before seen detailed maps cover the entire area of Tibet and are worth the price alone. Available very very well priced on ABEbooks (and no doubt other on-line bookstores) here is a link to it at Amazon for some reviews. (Note the few poor reviews are only for the Kindle version.)
https://www.amazon.com/Historical-Atlas-Tibet-Karl-Ryavec/dp/0226732444/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1473408151&sr=1-1&keywords=a+historica l+atlas+of+tibet

[Joel Greifinger]

Hi Jeff,

I realize that my previous post was only responsive to the 'tell' aspect but side-stepped your plea, "Show me your library." Here is most of it. Its lack of focus (from Norwegian and Swedish rugs in the north to ancient Peruvian textiles in the south) is a reflection of my almost equally diffuse rug accumulation habits. :p

https://s15.postimg.org/6yzmd3pvv/IMG_1529.jpghttps://s15.postimg.org/4178x57m3/IMG_1549.jpghttps://s15.postimg.org/8s2j1fb2j/IMG_1537.jpghttps://s15.postimg.org/xmm0vhvwr/IMG_1538.jpghttps://s22.postimg.org/870m7a9dt/IMG_1550.jpghttps://s15.postimg.org/v6k7hndu3/IMG_1540.jpghttps://s15.postimg.org/4mw7t92ob/IMG_1541.jpghttps://s15.postimg.org/hsbpzcwjv/IMG_1544.jpghttps://s15.postimg.org/yhd5v9t57/IMG_1545.jpg

Joel

[Rich Larkin]

OK, Joel, all I can say is, "Wow!" Nice library!! :bravo:

[Jeff Sun]

Nice books Joel! Very nice!:clap::clap:

[Jeff Sun]

Hi Jeff,

As an afterthought I would like to highly recommend to you, given your interest in Tibetan carpets, and hence one might assume Tibet in general - that is if you don't already have same - a relatively new book (first pub. 2015) called A Historical Atlas of Tibet by Karl Ryavec.


Thanks Kay. The Atlas is on my list now.

Here are some more non-carpet related pics for you. Books on Tibet, with heavy doses of Sven Hedin.

http://i1361.photobucket.co m/albums/r661/feigepai/IMG_0699_zpsvnyz14dl .jpg

http://i1361.photobucket.co m/albums/r661/feigepai/IMG_0701_zpsg8eha9bz .jpg

http://i1361.photobucket.co m/albums/r661/feigepai/IMG_0700_zpshfel9uz4 .jpg

Books on Xinjiang. More Sven and Aurel Stein.

http://i1361.photobucket.co m/albums/r661/feigepai/IMG_0702_zpsnfhuqsvz .jpg

[Patrick Weiler]

This bookshelf is in my living room, holding most of my rug books.
I started a Hali subscription around 1990 with volume 50, and have a stack of Oriental Rug Review papers and magazines, too. Turkotek is responsible for most of my utilization of these books - when a topic is posted I often grab the most closely related book or two and rifle through the pages. I picked up the Jenny Housego Tribal Rugs book in Fairbanks, Alaska, on June 9th, 1993. (I use the receipt as a bookmark.) When I asked Jim Burns to autograph my copy of his book Antique Rugs of Kurdistan, he mentioned that an author's signature could increase the value of a book as much as 10%. So I asked him to sign it twice....
The book Caucasian Carpets on the lower, right shelf, has a chunk out of the slipcover - and the book. My former dog decided to take a bite out of it one day. Former dog.

http://www.turkotek.com/show_and_tell/20160912_090359.jpg

The bookshelf was made by a local cabinet maker in the first half of the 20th century for my grandparents. When I was at the Istanbul ICOC I was tempted to buy the two-volume edition of Turkish rugs, but it wouldn't fit in my luggage - which turned out to be a good thing because at Heathrow they would only let each passenger bring one carry-on through security. So I had to cram two bags of stuff into one. I would have had to carry the books on top of my head.
And there are a few books I would still like to add to the library.

Patrick Weiler

[Jeff Sun]

This bookshelf is in my living room, holding most of my rug books.
I started a Hali subscription around 1990 with volume 50, and have a stack of Oriental Rug Review papers and magazines, too. Turkotek is responsible for most of my utilization of these books - when a topic is posted I often grab the most closely related book or two and rifle through the pages. I picked up the Jenny Housego Tribal Rugs book in Fairbanks, Alaska, on June 9th, 1993. (I use the receipt as a bookmark.) When I asked Jim Burns to autograph my copy of his book Antique Rugs of Kurdistan, he mentioned that an author's signature could increase the value of a book as much as 10%. So I asked him to sign it twice....
The book Caucasian Carpets on the lower, right shelf, has a chunk out of the slipcover - and the book. My former dog decided to take a bite out of it one day. Former dog.

http://www.turkotek.com/show_and_tell/20160912_090359.jpg

The bookshelf was made by a local cabinet maker in the first half of the 20th century for my grandparents. When I was at the Istanbul ICOC I was tempted to buy the two-volume edition of Turkish rugs, but it wouldn't fit in my luggage - which turned out to be a good thing because at Heathrow they would only let each passenger bring one carry-on through security. So I had to cram two bags of stuff into one. I would have had to carry the books on top of my head.
And there are a few books I would still like to add to the library.

Patrick Weiler

Wow! Just Wow! Looks like I need to study up some.

[Chuck Wagner]

Hi,

My entry above has been updated to include the rest of the books, now co-located in New England.

Regards
Chuck