Carpets, Rugs & Textiles auction at Netherhampton Salerooms

Detlev Fischer 5 April 2007

This is a report, mixed with some private musings, on the Carpets, Rugs & Textiles auction that took place at Netherhampton Salerooms, Salisbury, England, on 8 March 2007. The twenty photographs included were taken in the order in which they are inserted in the text.

I had been at Netherhampton Salerooms once before; at that time, I came to collect some rugs that I had won after bidding by fax. I would find myself logging around an unwieldy roll on my shoulder for the rest of the day. I had been given a lift back to Salisbury centre by a senior auctioneer who could hardly believe that anyone might choose to walk to the place, which is perhaps a mile outside of Salisbury.

The walk from the rail station is actually very pleasant but for the last part. Heading south-westwards onto the town path through the idyllic water meadows formed between the meandering rivers Avon and Nadder, you completely bypass Salisbury centre. Looking back over marshes, ditches and grazing cattle your are offered vistas of the famous Salisbury cathedral, once a subject of Constable's landscape paintings. The last half mile or so you have to walk on the hard shoulder of the A3094. I remember the high grass on the roadside swaying sidewards violently with each passing truck, a strangely unsettling experience as my body tried to compensate for the sudden offset.  

This time, arriving by train early on the day of auction, I took a cab to to get a chance to go through those rugs that I had marked in the printed catalogue before the auction would begin. The large nondescript building which houses Netherhampton Salerooms is clearly engineered for cattle auctions, rugs and furniture being a small sideline. In the entrance hall you find self-composed billboards showing images of top furniture, ceramics or rug sales amid posters on cattle vaccination or BSE.

In a small office that has a window onto the large auction hall, I found June Barrett and Ian Bennett busy answering last-minute questions about the rugs to be auctioned. The American collectors seem particularly fastidious to the point of disregard. "They call you just an hour before the auction and want a condition report on a long list of rugs", said Ian Bennett, who runs the Carpet department together with June Barrett.  Both joined Netherhampton Salerooms when Wooley & Wallis, just across on the other side of Salisbury, decided to discontinue specialist carpet sales in 2004.

I went into the auction hall which was filled by the roar of a gas heater. A few dealers and collectors were walking around inspecting some of the rugs they had earmarked - and so did I. Then it was announced that the carpet stack would be turned the last time before the auction would begin. I was too busy taking photos to pay much attention to the carpets and runners - but I had made up my mind anyway that I would just bid on a few rugs and bags. Since I don't have the resources to collect the things I really like, I have something of a transient collection - meaning that I usually buy some of the pieces that interest me in order to analyse and describe them, photograph them, put them on my website, and sell them on Ebay later on.

The carpet stack is being turned for the last time before the auction begins.  Decisions must be made quickly since the carpet of interest will very soon be submerged by other carpets.

The youngest auction visitor is being put on top of the table with the bags and bag faces.

A collector (or dealer?) inspecting the edge of a submerged carpet. Visible on top of the pile is lot 838, Good Yarkand Carpet, Xinjang (east Turkestan).

Mr Nassir of 29 Highgate Rd (the shop is now closed) rushing to inspect lot 739, an attractive and unusual Heriz rug which he will win later on.

A dealer or agent going through a list of rugs and inspecting the rugs on the racks. He would later sit outside and talk with his client over the mobile. To the left you see the heating system.

Table with bag faces, window to the office, some small rugs at the wall.

Next to the window from left to right, you can see lot 1046, a Lori or Kurdish Kilim that was estimated at 150-200 and sold for 130; lot 981 Daghestan rug, maybe woven by a child, for which I bid up to 300 (it went for 320); and some Turkmen engsi that must have been added after the catalogue went into print since I cannot find it in there.

While I felt a vague excitement as I watched the staff set up the microphone at the pedestal (I took this as a sign that the auction would soon begin), the other attendants seemed rather calm, nearly lethargic.

Netherhampton staff, joking, set up the microphone at the pedestal. In the background hangs lot 761, which the catalogue identifies as a Rasht embroidered panel.

Junior auctioneer Leigh Poole taking bids during the 'General rugs' section of the sale

A small Donegal Arts & Cafts carpet rose above most others. Estimated at 300 to 500, it closed at 1000. Other Donegal rugs would later perform equally well - but what does that mean? What actually is this performance? This way of talking imbues the rug with a sort of life, as if it had to stand up and prove its worth. In reality, it hangs sullenly off its rack, as if it knew that chance and the whim of the current market dictate whether it will do well or fail. There is really nothing wrong with rugs that don't 'perform', such as lot 531 Silk Kashan that sold at 1800, far below its estimate of 2.800-3.200.  

Still, browsing through the rugs suspended from the racks, I could not help but feel some ghostly personal presence, or rather absence, emanating from each one as I decided to face it properly. In those brief moments the rug wants to communicate its unknown history and at the same time seems to despair quietly at not being able to do so. Its presence seems utterly disinterested in the process of appreciation that is temporarily sealed by a stroke of the hammer and and the registration of the closing price against the bidder's number. Maybe this air of despair is just created by the neglect and maltreatment that it may have suffered over the years, or by the fact that it is now torn for good from its previous context of use.  

May be it is even permissible to talk about a more general melancholy of rugs. Once a rug has been  completed and is cut off the loom, does not a subtle despondency settle in its fabric, as if its completion was just the beginning of its slow demise through use and wear?  

But enough of those musings, and back to the auction process. The time given to each rug to attract a bidder is short; somehow each rug blends with the previous and next rug. Some of the poorer rugs were further humiliated by the fact that no bid came forward, at which point the auctioneer would  reduce the entry price, saying, faintly mocking as if insulted by the lack of interest, "Surely, it's worth fifty? Twenty, then?" at which point the bidding will sluggishly commence.

Bidding for  lot 527 "Two matching Chinese rugs, Tianjin about 1930-40", estimated at GBP 100-150

Senior auctioneer Michael Vesey in the Runners & Long Rugs section of the auction

For the section 'Runners & long rugs', the senior auctioneer Michael Vesey, a Director of Southern Counties Auctioneers, took over from Leigh Poole. I admired the way he seemed to wrap up the whole bidding process in his seasoned voice, which would just sing at a certain height to drop by a third at the winning bid. To one of his quasi liturgical phrases I owe the title of this article: "And I will sell, make no mistake". (I remember myself musing whether I should interpret this as a warning or as an encouragement.)

Soon after, a real bidding war broke loose around a pair of tattered ugly Ushak 'Fancy Turkey' runners which according to the catalogue and quite evidently to the eyes of all in the room were worn, faded, and stained.

The estimate had the pair down at GBP 250-350 but driven by some Americans bidding over the phone line, the ugly lot sailed off into the sky unrelenting, ending at 2000.

A bidding war breaks loose around two tattered Ushak 'Fancy Turkey' runners (see next image)  

Netherhampton staff squatting next to one of the Ushak 'Fancy Turkey' runners

Contemplating star lot 651, a Kurdish mian farsh (middle carpet) of enormous length

The carpet section of the auction started with one of the star lots, no. 651, a very long Kurdish mian farsh (middle carpet) with a colourful mina khani pattern on a wool foundation and in good condition, measuring 21ft. x 7ft.3in. (6.50m x 2.22m) - too long to fit into rooms in modern flat. Estimated at FBP 6.000-7.000, the lot went for a mere 3.700.  

I wasn't terribly interested in most of the other rugs, so I went to the empty cafeteria to have chilli with rice.  

What was surprising was to see how some of the other carpets seemed to be seriously undervalued. There were a few Heriz carpets and one or two Bakhtiari carpets with good dyes which went for very little.  

I noticed (and it is the photo that reminds me) that some of the private collectors were weathering the carpet section, perched against the table with tribal bags that they were more interested in. (Of course I cannot be sure that these were private collectors, not dealers, and there may be no easy separation into one or the other anyway.)

Collectors perched against the table with tribal bag faces, waiting for the carpet section to end.

Ian Bennett and June Barrett taking telephone bids for some textiles

A bidder collecting a Qashqa'i rug she has won

The smaller items (chuvals, torbas, and other bags) were held up by Netherhampton staff. Some of them were closely inspected by dealers and collectors.

Even before the auction arrived at the final lot, some people were collecting the items they had won, others talked or searched for their items. A strange slow unravelling.

After the auction, I had the privilege of talking to Ian Bennett on the train back to Bristol. He had many fascinating stories to tell, many about the often sad and sometimes erratic fate of important carpets. I hope he will write a book one day to tell these stories to a wider audience.

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