Compass

Editorial: The renewal of institutions in the carpet world, opportunities for engaging a new audience and HALI returns to Olympia

Dialogue: Highlights from the Burrell Collection leave Glasgow on tour; a new gallery in Beirut; letters from Tom Cole and David Sorgato; remembering Mary Burkett OBE and Sheikh Saud al-Thani

Diary: Our choice of the most important rug and textile events during the next quarter

Calendar: Some of the best fairs, auctions, exhibitions and conferences of the season

Thread of time: The far-flung reaches of the British Empire and battles for independence are evident in print on Fijian barkcloth and a French toile de Jouy

Travellers’ tales: Philippa Scott Discovering ever-changing rug treasures in the French city of Clermont-Ferrand

Interview: US artist Richard Tuttle reflects on five diverse textiles from his collection

Comment: Malin Lonnberg Confronting attitudes towards textiles in the contemporary art world

Anatomy of an object: Hadi Maktabi Illuminating finds as a Northwest Persian carpet with an inscription is dissected

Features

Breaking new ground The President of the Board of Trustees introduces The Textile Museum, reopening in March 2015, while multiple curators survey the museum’s inaugural exhibition in its brand new home on the Foggy Bottom campus of the US capital’s George Washington University

Motifs in mulberry silk Tulsi Vatsal Fine examples of Baluchar saris from Bengal could be seen in the recent Tapi Collection exhibition in Mumbai. Acclaimed for their pictorial and tactile qualities, Baluchar textiles are a testament to the weaving skills of an era that ended more than a century ago, but many questions remain unanswered

Mastery with a twist Sarah W. Mallory The spiralling, energetic forms that characterise the work of Pieter Coecke van Aelst were celebrated in a major exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum, New York – a show that gives his tapestries their rightful status

An unknown hoard Elena Tsareva An extensive and high-quality UK private collection of Turkmen and other Central Asian rugs, trappings and textiles will feature in a forthcoming book. Here is a selection

Japan and the West in dialogue Monika Bincsik The Metropolitan Museum, New York has held its first kimono exhibition. A rich history of cross-cultural influence is revealed as the story of the garment is told

Broad horizons Daniel Shaffer Hamid Sadighi Neiriz is a man with a plan to ignite the imagination of a new generation of textile aficionados. His ambitious exhibition of kilims in partnership with Burg Giebichenstein Kunsthochschule in Halle, Germany is part of the university’s long-standing engagement with textiles and is intended to reach out to a younger audience

Reviews

Exhibition reviews 

Carpets and film meet in ‘Ways’, Milan; Tapestries at the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania, Vilnius; ‘Cairo under Wraps: Early Islamic Textiles’ at the Royal Ontario Museum Toronto; ‘A Life in Colour’, Persian gabbehs from the Naziri Collection, Hamburg

Conference reviews 

What is a carpet? – a question that speakers gathered to discuss at Stromata at the Kunsthistorisches Institut, Florence, the event reviewed by Hans König; plus reports from the annual Volkmann-Treffen in Berlin and Turkmen-Treffen in Hamburg

Book reviews 

Silver Treasures from the Land of Sheba: Regional Yemeni Jewellery by Marjorie Ransom is reviewed by Linda Pastorino

Market report 

An embroidered silk Ming-period thangka fetches US$45 million at Christie’s Hong Kong

Market report 

Ignazio Vok’s idiosyncratic and influential textile collection is about to be dispersed in a series of auctions over three years –a redistribution that reflects his personal collecting philosophy

Fair review 

James Cohen considers the many highlights at affordable and inclusive ARTS in San Francisco

Auction price guide 

Reports from Austria Auction Company’s October 2014 sale of Fine Antique Oriental Rugs, including the Günther Marschall Collection; plus lots from Rippon Boswell’s sale in May 2014, London’s Autumn Asia Week sales and Christie’s in New York, all featuring a string of new benchmark prices.

Last page

Still globe-trotting at 91, Hans König reflects on an Islamic art exhibition in Genoa in which nothing is superfluous or less than superb