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American Conference on Oriental Rugs - ACOR
7
by Mike Tschebull April 1, 2004
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 ACOR
7 took place March 25-28 in Seattle, Washington, USA, centered in the
waterfront Bell Harbour Conference Centre. As is common in Seattle, there
was usually a fine misty rain, but the scenery was spectacular when we had
a bit of sun. Food and drink were good, with Seattle well-known for fresh
wild Salmon and micro-brewed beer.
What follows is an idiosyncratic tour of the exhibitions, one focus
session, and images of Dealers' Row. Regarding the choice of images shown,
a group of any number of other ones could have been compiled with equal
success.
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Exhibitions
 The ACOR 7 exhibition space was well laid out and covered a large area.
Temporary walls were hung with with black paper, which made the rugs and
textiles look well. Lighting was unusually good, and it was said that the
wife of one of the ACOR board members was key to its success.
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The first objects shown upon entering the exhibition area were Chilkat
dance blankets, woven with wild goat hair on cedar root foundations. This
example, from the 19th century, was shown with an accompanying pattern
board.
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"Ata" chuval |
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Ersari trapping, about 5' long, with palmette forms
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"Saryq" chuval, machine serged on all four sides. Asymmetric
knots; left and right borders missing. Pets nice, good color. Jon Thompson
opines that the weaver of this bag was "Ersaryq".
See more images from the exhibitions.
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Hands-on sessions
There were sixteen "hands-on" sessions, with individual collectors
sharing mostly small pieces with an audience of limited size.
In the
pictured session, Ralph and Linda Kaffel were showing a pair of small
European-design Zeihur pile rugs. The format works well.
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Dealer's Row
Dealers' Row was large and diverse.
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The "Bath Boys" stand on Dealers' Row, with a pair of Kurdish "Mina
Khani" pile bags on the wall in the left middle background.
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More images from the exhibitions |
Early "Quba" kennereh, previously published by Jim Burns. |
"Bijov"-design Quba with a design much like one seen in Zeikhur rugs,
but with fewer, larger elements; unusual border; seemingly older, very
unusual. |
Kirchheim "Seljuk" fragment. |
Azarbayjani pile rug, probably village work from East Azarbayjan. |
Qarabagh prayer rug with early color; indecipherable date. |
Quba fragment, perhaps earlier than most. It is finally becoming
acceptable to exhibit fragments of early 19th century interesting
Transcaucasian village-woven pile rugs. To call such rugs simply
"Caucasian" is a misnomer. |
Ersari carpet with repeat boteh |
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