The Standard

Dear Folks,

I have hesitated to add these pictures because I don't have express approval to post them. Yet I'm going ahead anyway as similar ones were already published in HALI.

At ACOR 5 in Burlingame, CA, there was a trip to visit the home of Jim Dixon - a home designed to accommodate/display a fabulous rug collection. If there is a "standard" to which collectors/decorators may aspire, this is it.



















Cordially,

-Jerry-

What an extraordinary collection! Both the rugs and their display must be overwhelming in person. I am just guessing here, but it looks as though the focus is on Persian tribal and city textiles. It makes me wonder about the number of years this collection has been in the making.
Here in Dallas/Fort Worth, where I've been living, collections are put together -- and here I'm talking more about paintings than rugs -- rather quickly. I'd like to think that the collection you visited and photographed is the result of decades of passionate looking, learning, and acquisition.

Hi Jerry,

Thanks. And "Holy mackerel!"

Fuzzy pics

I'm sorry these pictures aren't any clearer, folks. Trust me when I tell you that they were sharp as a tack when I started. I think the problem takes place somewhere in the digitization process. Or maybe it's in the PhotoShop "enhancement" that I used to lighten each picture so you could see more detail in the rugs. Or maybe it's in reducing each image from about 5.4MB to 150kb.

That's also the problem with some of the images in the Salon itself.

Don't know the cause. Wish I did. But I think you'll get the idea.

Cordially,

-Jerry-

Hi Jerry

I can confirm that yours (and the ones in the Salon) were sharp and clear when in their unedited state; the image deterioration puzzles me, too. I edit lots of images for people for Turkotek posting, and almost none lose detail the ways yours do when adjusted to size. They come from all kinds of digital cameras and scanners. If anyone has suggestions on how to avoid this, I'd like to hear them.

Steve Price

Big Mistake, Jerry

Jerry,

You have mistakenly used pictures of my house in your post.



Patrick Weiler

And I don't want to hear anymore about "clutter."

Of course, Dixon's clutter is often 16th and 17th century. Maybe he gets a "bye" for that.



R. John Howe

Crikeys

Hi Jerry,

Our kids used to complain about living in a museum. Now I have something to fight back with. Looks like a hidden wing of the V&A. I'm impressed and waiting with open arms for the cast-offs.

Steve - send me a full scale image and I'll see what I can do..

Thanks again Jerry, that place is incredible

Regards,
Chuck


Chuck

__________________
Chuck Wagner

Hi Chuck

I don't save the original image files after I've edited them.

Jerry, would you send some of the originals to Chuck so he can take a crack at resolving the problem? Chuck, just so you know what I've done with them, I edit them in Photoshop CS2 and generally don't do much except crop out the extraneous stuff and reduce the image dimensions to no more than 600 pixels wide if it's landscape, no more than 500 pixels wide if it's portrait format. On some, I touch up the brightness and contrast.

Regards

Steve Price

Never mind, it’s done: Jerry sent the originals to me too.
The trick is to sharpen the images after the resizing.

To see the new images, you’ll have to click on the “refresh” button of your browser while keeping the “Ctrl” key pressed down, though, otherwise you’ll probably see the old ones from your – or your ISP – cache.

Now, a comment on Mr. Dixon’s house:
This IS too much

and typically nouveau riche.

Yours vieux pauvre, admittedly with a lot of envy… for the collection, NOT for the display of it

Filiberto

Wonderful! Thank you Jerry.

In the third photo it appears that the carpet on the floor is extremely worn.

Clearly Mr Dixon has no problem exposing a carpet in this state to further wear.
But I'm betting that carpet is far more valuable than anything I'd ever dream of owning. Perspective huh.


Other thought regarding Jerry's Question 'When's a rug actually a rug'.
Of course they never were just rugs in their 'real' lives. They're bags, sitting furniture, cushions, tables, beds, doors, screens, religious places, decorative items and floor coverings. What's more we often see items past their initial transferred to other uses. Bags to floor rugs, big rugs cut down to bags. So our uses are just extensions of a whole ongoing process. The idea of colouring and design even put them in the purely decorative arts arena.

I'm happy using old balisht and saddle bags as doormats. And relegation to the cat bed is a noble use for any rug (actually all my rugs are cat beds) ! However is preserving an oldish, badly repaired, cheap and unusable, but pretty rug for its decorative value even when it can't be hung or put on the floor noble, wise or crazy? My friends say crazy.

I'll never have enough money to have too many...........so that answers the clutter question


regards
Johanna

Definitely Overwhelming!!

G'day all,

Oh Boy! Luuuvvv those patterns and colours - and hey, dont apologise for the sharpness Jerry, they appear perfectly okay on my monitor. And as for clutter, I dont mind, I live with it everyday - just wish my clutter approximated a bit more what you have just displayed...

And now I have something to show my friends if they query my 'no shoes inside' edict - notice everyone in Jerrys friend's home has only socks on? Just like my place - socks that is.

Muchas appreciation Jerry, its a gas.

Regards,
Marty.

Yes, some of the rugs on the floors were a bit blitzed, but others were still in damn nice condition (as I recall). Taking off our shoes was almost as much a sign of respect as a house rule.

One side note that I'd forgotten about until now: The display of fragments beside intact pieces was done in such a way as to enhance both - something I hadn't seen before or since, for that matter.

Cordially,

-Jerry-

Jerry,

Among the very many comments one can make: The man has a penchant for Memling guls. No?

Hi

My take on it: It's obviously a superb collection. But the display makes it just about impossible for me to really appreciate the rugs. To me, it's like being shown an enormous patchwork quilt by someone who expects me to appreciate, enjoy and admire the patches individually. Maybe some people can do that, but I'm not one of them.

Reducing the display to half the number of pieces would make it twice as wonderful.

Regards

Steve Price

Hi all,

First, I will echo those who have commented on how fabulous that collection is. Wow!

I tend to agree with Steve and I think that each of the wonderful pieces would somehow have a greater impact if not placed side-by-side with another, often similar piece. On the other hand, perhaps that is exactly what I would do if I had a collection like that and a cathedral-sized house...

James

And a big thank you to Filiberto for straightening out the distortions in the photos of this incredible place.

James -

This is a custom house designed specifically by Dixon to house and show off his collection.

Regards,

R. John Howe

Hi John,

Really (tongue in cheek)? I thought that was how they made all houses down in the U.S. of A. It's how they look on TV.

James.

James -

Well, in truth, they make houses lots of ways in the U.S. Recently, there has been a tendency to things 10,000 square feet or more (although I think the recent "crisis" may put a stop to much of that).

Someone here wrote about what it's like for a family of four to live in a 10,000 square foot house. It means for one thing that each member has as much space as often comprises an entire house for others. And things get lost in serious ways in 10,000 square feet.

There are, of course, lots of custom homes at this size, but none I had seen previously with cathedral ceilings of this height.

I mistook your previous post. I thought you were suggesting that you and your wife might encounter some such place, looking about when you return. That was what triggered my "custom" indication.

Regards,

R. John Howe

Hi John,

You said:

quote:

---

I thought you were suggesting that you and your wife might encounter some such place, looking about when you return.

---

nouveau riche

Filiberto's comment on the nouveau riche look of Mr. Dixon's house begs the question: how long was this collection in the making? It may be that many of those rugs were acquired over a long period of time and Dixon finally got the bucks to show them off (as the display is tres nouveau riche in style, if not substance). But I don't know enough about rugs to know if so many of whatever quality they are, could be amassed in a matter of a few years.
That said, if I were newly rich, I'd concentrate more on buying rugs than spending money on their display. And I'd be out there buying at least one every day, until all the money was gone.
Which brings up another question that I sometimes bedevil myself with. If I had unlimited money to spend on rugs -- or even, say, $50,000 a year to spend on rugs -- how would that affect my taste?
Would I lose interest in war rugs and start buying the wonderful Yomut pieces I can't begin to afford? Would I move to Turkish rugs and start buying the oldest and best that were available? Would I buy one museum-quality piece every year and commune with it every time I caught the buy to look at other rugs?
I don't really know. What does anyone else think?

Decorator for Hire

Janet,

When you win the lottery, I suggest you hire me to buy your rugs for you, for a modest commission. You get two rugs, I get one.

Some (Big Name) collectors have used the services of a specialist to assist in focusing their collections. And many collectors have trusted in a favored dealer to buy at auction or bring things to them that fit into their collections.
You can find a few dealers that offer their services in this way and many other dealers who know the kinds of rugs some of their clients prefer and they contact them when something that may interest them arrives or becomes available. It certainly takes some of the pressure off when spending the big bucks on pieces that others may think are not worthy. And it also saves you a lot of time and effort. On the other hand, you can end up with a collection that reflects the taste of your dealer rather than your own.
Or, you can buy the rugs yourself and pay an expert to rate and evaluate your collection.
Let me know when your collection is published and you go on tour to all the ACOR rug groups.

Patrick Weiler

Like James, I’m in the mists of moving too. This should account for my distraction….
Because I deleted a message thinking of validating it - for the second time this week.
This is the text, unsigned:

Message Title : Think Baluch, always.
Hi Janet,

A question after my own heart, to be sure. I've also thought about
that more than once. No time now, but I'll chime in soon.

I’m sorry, but at least half of the messages are from spammers, so the deleting is becoming almost automatic, if I don’t pay too much attention.
Regards,

Filiberto

Shiraz is also good

Filiberto and Janet,

That was me that got nixed. For some reason, one of my computers does not enter me as registered. I did put in my user name. Thanks for the effort in notifying me.

Rich Larkin

Rich, I feel the same way about Baluches, maybe because they tend to seem so out-of-the-box, so provisional. There is an interesting dealer who is based in New York -- actually, I think he teaches at one of the CUNY collages, or some such -- and is a Balucho-holic or Balucho-phile, or whatever seems most appropriate. His name is: deleted actually, I think it's deleted , but don't quote me on that.
His website can be accessed through deleted. After looking at his rugs for a while, I begin to feel like I'm on another planet.

Note: names deleted to avoid the slightest suspicion of commercial promotion. Ed