Hali Publications Ltd – serie

For thousands of years, the peoples of Central Asia have created spectacular textiles for every aspect of life. Infinite care, resources and time have gone into making elaborate costumes (connoting the wearer’s identity and place in society), equestrian items, and exquisite furnishings for settled as well as nomadic lifestyles. Items of dress were decorated literally from top to toe: boots were embroidered with metal thread, while hats were stitched, appliquéd and felted. The women of a family would come together to embroider dazzling suzanis to form part of a bride’s dowry; master dyers and weavers would craft vibrant ikat hangings. Combined, these objects tell an evocative story of life along the Silk Road in times past.This book brings together outstanding textiles from the Neville Kingston Collection, featuring many previously unpublished pieces. It is the second volume to document this exceptional English collection; Turkmen Carpets: The Neville Kingston Collection was published in 2016.

Suzanis, the exquisite hand-embroidered panels from Central Asia, have captured the hearts and minds of collectors and decorators for many years. Joyful and exuberant, they are a bridge to a past way of life in which textiles permeated every facet of existence. While today they adorn the walls of museums and can be spotted in homes designed by interior designers such as Robert Kime and Beata Heuman, not much is known about their history. This book sets out to change that.Through the lens of one of the best collections of suzanis in the world, we delve into the history of Central Asia and understand more about the women who painstakingly stitched these works of art. A true delight for all who have experienced the magic of the suzani, this publication pairs beautiful visuals with engaging new research.

For millennia, horses have captivated humans with their beauty, strength and majesty. From Türkiye to Japan, civilisations have elaborately costumed these prized animals. A magnificent selection of saddle blankets, horse covers and other equestrian textiles from the past 1,300 years communicates the significance and status of horses and their riders.

Exploring the vast range of materials and techniques used in the making of Tibetan clothing and ornaments, this book takes a closer, more intimate look at the different cultural groups within this diverse country, discussing how national costume relates to their everyday life. The technical approach will appeal to spinners, weavers, felt makers, braiders, embroiderers, jewellers and costume enthusiasts. The book will also interest many general readers in Europe and America who are fascinated by the aura of the Tibetan Region; the lifestyle of the people who live amongst Tibet's high peaks, emerald forests, and stunning lakes command world-wide interest. Richly illustrated with the author's evocative contemporary high quality photographs, dating from the mid 1980s, this book is a visual journey into the heart of the country. It documents the people, and their costumes and related crafts, focussing on the historical Tibetan regions of Amdo and Kham. Tibetan Clothing and Jewellery is unique in its reflection of historical material. It combines this academic knowledge base with original observations and wide-ranging interviews with nomads and farmers, all of which centre around costumes locally possessed and worn by Tibetans today.

Published on the occasion of an important international loan exhibition at The Azerbaijan Carpet Museum in Baku, this multi-author book is much more than a mere catalogue. Written by a team of international museum professionals and independent scholars, it is the first co-ordinated and detailed study of the West Caspian region's characteristic silk embroideries. The book traces the history of embroidery in the Caucasus, the multi-cultural sources of domestic embroidery iconography and designs in which the textile traditions of the Iranian and Turkic worlds meet, materials and needlework techniques, as well as the relationship between embroidery and the pile carpet weaving tradition in the region.

This book features the collector/author's well-informed views about a careful selection of mainly 19th century knotted pile carpets and flatwoven covers in various techniques from his own extensive collection, which has been built up over a period of more than five decades. Many of the rugs, which are all of the highest graphic and artistic quality, have been acquired without recourse to the open market and are therefore previously unseen and unpublished. Raoul (Mike) Tschebull's long experience in the genre allows insights that go beyond the conventional wisdom of the traditional antique oriental carpet bazaar. His collecting career began under the aegis of one of the great US collectors of a previous generation, Joseph V. McMullan.This beautifully illustrated book will include a general introduction to the region, which straddles the present-day border between north-western Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan, setting the context for the focused presentation of some 70 examples, each with the author's comments about design, structure, technique and attribution, providing a matrix within which dating can be considered. In-country field experience colours some of his views, and extracts from his field notes and accompanying images will be included the book.

The handmade rug industry has gone through a revolution in the last twenty-five years, and no one is better placed to explain how and why than Fritz Langauer and Ernst Swietly, who have been buying, making, collecting and writing about rugs for over fifty years. Rugs are now being made in colours and designs unimagined just a few decades ago. This new book is the only title available that shows how carpet making has changed in all traditional rug making nations as well as demonstrating through images of rugs in interior settings how the style and use of rugs has changed. Carpets carry many unspoken narratives about peoples and places - this new book reveals some of these for the first time thanks to the first-hand experience of the authors in the souks and bazars of the Middle East.

Kilims from Mazandaran are true masterpieces of woven minimalism. From stripes to fields of pure and deep colour, these textiles represent a singular kind of artistic abstraction.The women who authored these pieces made them for their own use. In wool and silk, they created works of textile art using the basic building blocks of all hand weaving: warp and weft. The grid thus created is at the same time rigid and flexible; it lends itself to geometric pattern, but also allows for feathery ikat-like effects and multidimensional colour expression.This book is a sumptuous visual celebration of a largely unknown modern art form. Expert writers add context to the pieces by contemplating subjects such as 20th-century minimalism, materiality and the nature of colour.

Artist and photographer Rudi Molacek has assembled, with an artist’s eye, an idiosyncratic collection of more than 300 Tibetan carpets, rugs, mats, seat-, bench- and saddle-covers. Between the 15th and the 20th centuries they were woven for both sacred and secular purposes by Tibetan nomads and villagers, and in the shadow of monastic centres across the Tibetan Plateau. The first volume presents Tibetan rugs intended for sitting, sleeping, meditation and horse riding, as well as those made to furnish the region’s prestigious temples and monasteries — an expression of the relative wealth and status of their owners. The second volume focuses on a group of so-called ‘Wangden’ rural rugs, characterised by a unique weaving technique, some of which have been the subject of an illuminating exercise in radiocarbon dating to establish the antiquity of the tradition.

This book presents a personal collection of ancestor sculpture and protective deities, following the ancient migratory and trade routes of the Austronesian, Southeast Asian Bronze Age, and Hindu-Buddhist peoples. The author, Thomas Murray, has spent a lifetime studying this art through his endeavours as a peripatetic dealer, collector, and field researcher. The objects illustrated come from a swath of widely varied cultures from Nepal eastward to Hawaii, with the overwhelming majority from Indonesia and Southeast Asia. Murray's eye is highly informed and based on an unusually large sampling of objects to which his experience and research have exposed him. The artworks documented represent some of the top examples he has acquired and retained over the course of a long career. They are characterised by sculptural balance and a harmony of line, as well as a rare quality of expressiveness. Each ranks high in terms of aesthetics and desirability within its own particular style as perceived by the art market and by other western aficionados.

Threads of Time is a journey around the world through the medium of textiles. In many communities, cultural heritage and traditions have been handed down through generations by textile artisans. Their beliefs, history, ceremonies, and traditions have been woven into cloth with meaning and purpose sometimes lasting thousands of years. Textiles are special in that they can create narratives that are personal as well as eminently portable. The pages of Threads of Time illustrate exquisite textiles with location photography, from historical examples of centuries past to extraordinary contemporary expressions, revealing a continuum of inspiration and beauty. The 16 chapters, covering regions from across the globe, feature contributions from local textile makers and experts, bringing together over 30 voices to tell stories of cloth.  Locations explored include: Indonesia, China, Vietnam and Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, Bhutan, Nagaland, Punjab, Egypt and Palestine, The Caucasus, Turkey, Madagascar, Tunisia, Ghana, Peru and Guatemala, Navajo Nation.

"Extensive text, beautifully-written and well-researched, this book leads us through many historical and geographical adventures and towards a plethora of full-colour plates...These pages ground us by sharing a complex culture expressed through an object of practical simplicity." —Ptolemy Mann, SelvedgeThe Michael and Amy Rothberg Collection of knotted-pile tribal and nomadic bags and other rare small format pile weavings, among them many pieces made for women's dowries and other ceremonial functions, is recognised as the best of its kind anywhere in the world. The collection has been carefully and thoughtfully assembled over the past four decades. Michael Rothberg's collections are above all distinguished by the collector's acutely sensitive and perceptive eye for the best museum-quality material available on the international market. Specialists in the field and other collectors and tribal weaving enthusiasts have awaited the publication of this part of the Rothberg Collection for many years, ever since a selection of the material was shown at Sotheby's in Los Angeles in a feature exhibition during the American Conference on Oriental Rugs in January 1996. The scope of the collection includes antique pile bags, from the Transcaucasus region, as well as from the Shahsavan, Kurdish, Varamin region, Qashqa'i, Khamseh, Luri, Bakhtiari, Afshar and Baluch tribes of Iran.

"It is wonderful, an instant classic and certainly the most comprehensive and useful single volume on the subject ever written." - Donald J. La Rocca, Curator, Arms and Armor, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Arms & Armour Of India, Nepal & Sri Lanka is a very visually-driven and broad-based introduction to the unique world of arms and armour of the Indian region, encompassing India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, areas with strong martial traditions. It provides an overview of types of arms and armour, with extensive geographical and historical context with many illustrated maps, their decoration and methods of adornment, as well as the iconographic and religious symbology. A unique and valuable feature of the book is an illustrated glossary. It is specifically designed to suit the needs of anyone wanting to familiarise themselves with this topic and the region. It can serve as a reference for the novice collector, and as an image resource for experts. This would include anyone interested in arms and armour in general, antique dealers, museums, general art market, educators, and of course, collectors. There has been increased interest in both collecting and scholarship regarding Indic arms and armour. Nearly every major auction on Indian and Islamic material tends to include arms and armour.Contents: Introduction; Terra Indica; Warfare In The Early Centuries; History: The Essentials; Steel, Trade And Distant Influences; Arms; Armour; Tribal Arms And Armour; Nepal; Sri Lanka; Decoration; Symbolism; Extraordinary Exemplars; Illustrated Glossary; Resources; Tips On Collecting; Museums/Collections; Further Reading; Index.

Sheila Fruman, fascinated by the textiles and handmade carpets she saw when she travelled overland in 1969 from Turkey to India, tells the stories of nine intrepid adventurers who have combed the streets and bazaars of Central and South Asia finding, researching, collecting and selling antique Kashmir shawls, embroidered Uzbek textiles and robes, Anatolian kilims, Turkmen carpets and many other textile treasures to interested Westerners. These stories capture the post-World War II era’s free spirit that briefly coincided with economic prosperity and open borders. With over 200 colour illustrations, the book shows how the indigenous designs and motifs popularised in the US and Europe by these textile travellers can now be found in anything from haute couture to high-end interior design to mass-marketed bedding, tableware and clothing.The dealers and collectors who have spent their lives seeking these complex pieces of the past have intriguing stories to tell and collections of some of the finest textiles of their kind in the world. Taken together, their stories are an enlightening guide to understanding how we connect to the past, and how textiles connect the world.

Deceptively simple or fantastically intricate, ikat technique has been used for many centuries to create extravagant costumes and cloths of deep cultural meaning. The distinctively blurred, feathered or jagged patterns of ikat-dyed textiles are found across much of the world - from Japan in the east to Central and South America in the west, with vast areas of South-east Asia, India, Central Asia and the Middle East in between. The traditional patterns still hold cultural relevance today in significant parts of the long-established ikat-weaving areas. Textile artists and fashion designers in many and varied countries have taken ikat in new directions, respecting traditional forms and palettes while creatively diverging from them. This is the first time all the different iterations of this textile have been comprehensively brought together in one volume, drawing from the wide-ranging collection of David Paly. It is a journey across the world through the lens of ikat.

Korean Ceramics: The Scholar's Vision, The Photographer's Eye has at its core a dialogue between Yangmo Chung—expert scholar and former director of the Korean National Museum—and contemporary artist Bohnchang Koo. Their subject is Joseon-dynasty white and blue-and-white porcelain. These masterpieces, now in museums across the world, captivate with their stark minimalism. Bohnchang Koo's sensitive portraits of the vessels meet Yangmo Chung's commentary to provide a unique perspective on Korean ceramics.International interest in Korean art and culture has boomed in the past decade, but literature on traditional Korean art forms in English remains scarce. This book is a timely resource for an English-speaking audience. In its pages, art-historical expertise combines with aesthetic interpretation, exploring the contemporary meaning of a classical porcelain tradition that blossomed for over five centuries.

This volume celebrates the brocade textiles, or songket, of Bali. Songket, consisting of supplementary weft-decorated textiles made from imported silk and gold and silver threads, was historically reserved for the ruling elite. Today, these luxurious textiles are favoured as ceremonial attire, especially for Balinese brides and grooms. Songket Bali distinguishes itself from similar textiles produced in other regions of Indonesia and Southeast Asia through the use of unique Balinese-style Hindu motifs. These adorn garments and textiles that are part of offerings to deities and ancestors.

Ikat textiles, known as abr in their lands of origin in Central Asia, are beloved by collectors, decorators and textile devotees across the world. This book presents a new approach to the intricately patterned silk textiles by focusing on complete robes from a major private collection. These items of clothing tell stories about their wearers: their home, identity and place in society. By studying the history, making, and changing fashions of ikat robes, the past is brought to life. It quickly becomes clear that the power and influence of Central Asian costume reached far beyond the borders of modern Uzbekistan, inspiring imitations and providing visual stimuli for avant-garde artists.    With stunning photography and previously unpublished research findings, this publication is a new take on ikat costume for those interested in the history of textiles and fashion, but also for those wishing to admire the sheer beauty and exquisite craftsmanship of these remarkable textiles.

Embroideries from the Greek islands dazzle with their bright colours and charming motifs. This publication reveals little-known pieces from the Ashmolean Museum at the University of Oxford, newly photographed and published here for the first time. The embroideries include fragments of pillowcases, bed valances, tents and curtains, as well as items of dress. As with all collections of textiles, the story of the Ashmolean holdings is chiefly about their makers and their ingenuity. Once forming the bulk of bridal trousseaux, Greek embroidered textiles were produced and maintained by young and old women for themselves and the house using locally produced materials. A mark of their worth and a platform for self-expression, embroidered textiles also helped Greek women to negotiate their place in the community, signalling status and affiliation.

In New York, Jason Nazmiyal has a rug collection like no other. For the past three decades, interior designers and collectors have flocked to his Manhattan gallery to source art for the floor, be it a treasured antique classical carpet, an elegant Art Deco rug, or a Scandinavian minimalist piece. This book delves into the history of the handmade carpet across the world, before looking at the many ways rugs can be used to bring together interiors in a variety of styles. From a Mid-Century Modern residence to a contemporary urban sanctuary and a classic Upper East Side apartment, there is a rug for every space. With stunning interior photography and full of practical advice for the professional decorator as well as the amateur enthusiast, this publication is a useful and beautiful addition to the library of anyone with an interest in interior decoration.

- High quality collection, including several 'best of type' pieces- Interesting individual take on the psychology of collectingThis fine tribal rug collection, built over many years by a Buenos Aires artist/architect, has at its heart a superb selection of 'Bird' designed rugs, alongside many other characteristic knotted-pile rugs woven by the nomadic tribes of the Khamseh Confederation in southwest Iran during the 19th century. In addition, smaller numbers of related weavings are featured, made by by neighbouring South Persian nomads (such as the Qashqa'i and the Afshar) as well as two highly focused groups of Shikli Kazak and 'Keyhole' design village rugs from the Transcaucasus region. The collector/author's lucid bilingual texts explain his passion for these stunning woven creations. His choices of collectable pieces are informed by his perspective as a successful artist and architect working in the Argentinian capital. Text in English and Spanish.