Posted by Jerry Silverman on June 05, 1999 at 16:15:01:
Summary
Just as there is no shortage of strong opinion about rugs, rug books can fire up a discussion too. Probably the most interesting direction this Salon took were the threads addressing the relative accuracy/error ratio of facts in rug books. Very few books were judged to be error-free. It was argued that some contained as much as 25% erroneous content which seemed like an error itself to several participants who thought it was lower. The idea was even proposed that rug books were so full of misinformation that reading them might actually reduce one’s knowledge and that one would be better off spending time with the rugs themselves than books about them. This was a minority opinion but not an unreasonable extrapolation.
Another interesting thread considered the impact of computer technology on rug books. Why not just publish the book on a CD-rom? Updates would be easier, and they would be better than books because they could include video and audio as well. But they wouldn’t be books, and for many of us books have desirable qualities that CD-roms will never have.
There was little concensus about the questions I posed. We all like books that don’t cost too much with high quality pictures of great rugs. We also prefer books that are factually correct even though we’ve come to expect less.
Finally, here’s a list of rug books for the (serious) Novice. Most are available used and for less than US$100; those that aren’t are too important to leave off just because of price.
Balpinar, Belkis and Udo Hirsch, CARPETS OF THE VAKIFLAR MUSEUM ISTANBUL
Bennett, Ian, ORIENTAL RUGS, VOL. 1, CAUCASIAN
Bier, Carol, ed., WOVEN FROM THE SOUL, SPUN FROM THE HEART
Black, David, ed., THE MACMILLAN ATLAS OF RUGS & CARPETS
Boucher, Jeff W., BALUCHI WOVEN TREASURES
Eagelton, William, INTRODUCTION TO KURDISH RUGS & OTHER WEAVINGS
Edwards, A., Cecil, THE PERSIAN CARPET
Eiland, Murray L., CHINESE AND EXOTIC RUGS
Eiland, Murray L. and Murray Eiland III, ORIENTAL CARPETS: A Complete Guide
Ellis, Charles Grant, ORIENTAL CARPETS IN THE PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART
Ford, P.R.J., THE ORIENTAL CARPET
Helfgott, L.M., TIES THAT BIND: A Social History of the Iranian Carpet
Housego, Jenny, TRIBAL RUGS
Hull, Alastair and Luczyc-Wyhowska, Jose, KILIM: The Complete Guide
Jourdan, Uwe, ORIENTAL RUGS, VOL. 5, TURKOMAN
Landreau, Anthony N., and W.R. Pickering, FROM THE BOSPORUS TO SAMARKAND: Flat-woven Rugs
Mackie, Louise W., and Jon Thompson, eds., TURKMEN
Mallett, Marla, WOVEN STRUCTURES: A Guide to Oriental Rug and Textile Analysis
Opie, James, TRIBAL RUGS: A Complete Guide to Nomadic and Village Carpets
Petsopoulos, Yanni, KILIMS: Masterpieces from Turkey
Schurmann, Ulrich, ORIENTAL CARPETS
Stone, Peter F., THE ORIENTAL RUG LEXICON
Thompson, Jon, ORIENTAL CARPETS: From the Tents, Cottages and Workshops of Asia
Tzareva, Elena, RUGS & CARPETS FROM CENTRAL ASIA
Ware Joyce C., OFFICIAL IDENTIFICATION AND PRICE GUIDE, ORIENTAL RUGS
Walker, Daniel S., FLOWERS UNDERFOOT: Indian Carpets of the Mughal Era
Cordially,
-Jerry-