Salmiya

The third part of the series on the occasion of the upcoming sale of Jack Cassin's collection is about Anatolian kilims. Jack had been lucky enough to find his masterpieces already in the late 1970s, before a British archaeologist, James Mellaart, became involved and Anatolian kilims became so popular. It was in fact Cassin, the spin doctor, who had contacted Mellaart in the early 1980s, and both developed the idea that Anatolian kilims might echo cults in neolithic societies of that region, an absurd and ludicrous hypothesis to the extreme. Textile and weaving expert Marla Mallett had long debunked the major claims in Mellaart, Hirsch and Balpinar's Goddess of Anatolia (1989) as utter nonsense. Cassin, who had initiated the project, later withdrew his collaboration when he noticed, already in the 1980s, that Mellaart was a fraud who had invented findings at the Çatal Hüyük excavation site in Anatolia. Cassin wrote about that in some detail in what he called his Anatol...

"Why Michael Franses? Well, I suppose because he represents one large tail of the rug dealers’, highly skewed-to-the-right, distribution. Having tried for decades to paint himself an expert and collector of high-end oriental rugs and honorable dealer, the façade has apparently crumbled. That the Bellini carpet (the object of probably the most egregious fraud of the past 20 years or so in the world of antique rugs) was in his possession before he sold it to Dennis Dodds, I had also noted some time ago when browsing the internet. I did not pay too much attention then since I liked the decoration of Dodd’s home with certainly highly valuable pieces anyway, most probably the only honest reason why rich individuals should collect antique rugs: to display them at home not store them in an inventory. It’s interesting that a simple sting operation exposed Mr. Franses true colors to the interested public. Franses enjoys now, as an employee of the Qatar Museums Authority, life in one of...

According to the American dealer who collaborated with a gallery in Stuttgart, Germany: “Low pile, missing parts of perimeter, and a few spots of crinkle damage/wear. Asymmetric knot open to the right. Wool, camel, goat, & cotton (1 ply in wefts). Fairly wide range of color for an Ertman chuval including 2 greens and a yellow. Bold, macho, elem and vertical aspect of main borders. For some reason digital cameras do not seem to have the ability to capture the traditional salmon color found in Chodor work. This applies to the images seen here. Most Turkoman collectors know this color. It is pure and good in this example.” I had first contacted Jack Cassin, by email, in 2012. I had bought the above Chodor chuval from an American dealer who was collaborating with a gallery in Stuttgart, Germany. In preparation of my purchase, I had bought a small booklet by Cassin & Hoffmeister (1988), Tent Band, Tent Bag. Despite the sober, not really scientific but at least pretending, descri...

I have written about the two Kharraqan towers before, see here . Both had been heavily damaged in a 2002 earthquake. They are located about one km west to the village of Hisar-i Valiasr and 33 km west to Ab-i Germ on the Qazvin-Hamadan road in the Qazvin province. The towers are basically octagonal with a height of about 15 meters and a width of 4 meters. They are considered the earliest examples of double-domed buildings in Iran. Due to their extraordinary ornamental brickwork the Kharraqan towers belong to the finest Seljuq monuments found in Iran. Execution of artistic ambition directly relates to that of the Maraghah towers, see here. They were built by Muhammad b. Makki al-Zanjani in 1068 and 1093 CE. It is amazing that they had been discovered in the west not before 1963 by William Miller and described shortly afterwards by archeologists David Stronach and T. Cuyler Young Jr. The Kharraqan towers are tombs, and the occupants are most likely unknown Seljuq chie...

UPDATE below. On a commercial website where dealers can offer antique rugs I found today the picture below. The dealer describes it as, "158 x 106 cm, 5'3 x 3'6, Fahralo Prayer Kazak, dated 1806/7, still in rather good condition with some old repairs." The date on the rug is clearly visible, 1261. One may calculate the Gregorian year by adding 622 (the year of Hijra) and subtracting 1261/33 (due to the lunar calendar AH, each year is 11 days shorter, so 365/11 =11.18). So, the possible year when the rug was manufactured is 1845, not 1806/07 (which would be 1221 AH). Apparently the dealer wants to suggest that the third number is a (mirrored) 2, not 6. The script is clearly Arabic, not Persian, see below. I doubt whether any serious collector of antique rugs is not aware of the importance of dates in rugs. It may be the only more or less reliable way to estimate age. It may also serve for tentatively dating similar rugs without a date. Having know...

While I do not believe certain antique rug dealers who claim time and again that there are no collectible artifacts anymore to find when in Iran, I do believe that there are many crooks underway who search for low quality textiles of the Shahsevan in the great bazaar of Tabriz only for one purpose: to cheat both their vendors and customers. I know that the economic situation for the common Iranian and, after the recent quake in August, in particular people from Tabriz has become dire after "crippling" and unilateral sanctions have been imposed by the US blackmailing also European countries. Tourists, a major source of income for so many Iranians, have abandoned the country in recent years. So, times are again good for the professional deceivers from the West (disgusting German Heinrich Jacoby style) taking advantage of either the destitution of common Iranians and the greed of "collectors" in the West. So, let me tell a brief story which started about two years a...