A scene from Jack Poyastro's London repair workshop probably 1920s.
The rugs being repaired are mostly Turkish an Anatolian kilim is far right.

For more on the inter-war London Trade go to :
http://www.orient-rug.com/rw_pages/history/cutler/rw_cutler_we_II.html

Photograph courtesy of Robert Aigin

Auctioned by Spink and Son [London]
Bond & Share Certificates of the World Auction Sale

3 April 2008 Lot 259 described as :

" Oriental Carpet Manufacturers Ltd., bearer share for £5, London
19(13), vignette at centre of carpet weaving with camel above, orna...
Oriental Carpet Manufacturers Ltd., bearer share for £5, London
19(13), vignette at centre of carpet weaving with camel above, ornate
border, orange & black, text in English & French, with coupons, VF. A
large company (capital £1,000,000), registered in England in 1907,
but with Head Office in Smyrna. Had branches in Istanbul, Izmir,
London, New York, Paris and Toronto. "

For more information on GB Oriental Tade History see our other Web page:

http://www.orient-rug.com/rw_pages/rw_history.html

Other links:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/bryan-huffner-oriental-carpet-merchant-773077.html

http://www.ekocm.com/history.htm


NB: We understand that Antony Wynn is currently writing the history of the great old Levantine Company

From 28 July 2007 we have stopped our Saturday venue at Portobello Road.
Thanks to Karun Thakar and his Berlin Wall all the other friends and customers who have made the last 4 years such a great deal of fun.
We may return to another location later in the year 2008.

Shortly we will be adding some more images to the Cutler Street files. The photos were obtained from the Rawlings collection c/o English Heritage and date to 1936 or 1945 - 1960s.

Rawlings Collection English Heritage


CUSTOM HOUSE LOWER THAMES STREET
GENERAL VIEW ACROSS THE POOL OF LONDON 1935 - 1965 but probably post WWII


CUTLER STREET WAREHOUSE unknown porters with goods including a rug depicting George V
1935 - 1955

Linen labels attached to rugs purchased from famous department stores in London at the turn of the century. Part of a small in-house collection. We are still looking for a Harrods one.

See also Shops, Manufacturers and Wholesalers 1851-1951/73

EARLY ISLAMIC TEXTILES
Edited by Clive Rogers

The spread of Islam did not produce a sudden revolution in textile design. Rather, the 600 years after the prophet's death in 632 AD saw the fusion of the great weaving traditions of the Byzantine and Sassanian empires with those of their Islamic conquerors. From these beginnings grew the Islamic textile that we know today.

The articles cover: textile techniques at the time of the conquests, the cotton and silk trade; a critical appreciation of aspects of design; the Persian influence; recent archaeological discoveries; the historical context.

Contributors include: Simon Crosby, Hero Granger-Taylor, Gillian Eastwood and Clive Rogers.
10 full colour plates, 32 black and white illustrations, a map and a chronological table. All textiles illustrated and accompanied by a full analysis of weave technique, material, date, use and provenance.

Published by Rogers and Podmore, 1 Highbury, Jesmond, Newcastle on Tyne NE2 3BX.

Price:
Paper back £8.00 (U.K.) US $15 (worldwide)
Hardcover £15.00 (U.K.) US $28 (worldwide)
Price includes postage and packing.
ISBN 0 9508875 0 1 Soft
ISBN 0 9508875 1 X Hard

We are slowly planning an exhibition of world textiles incorporating teased wool flannel sometimes described as Broadcloth or Flannel that was extensively traded up to WW1. This cloth was most often dyed red and is commonly associated rightly or wrongly with military use.

If you would like to contribute or are interested in any way with this project currently under way please don't hesitate to contact us.







( Above x 3 )18th centuary engravings of wool broadcloth manufacture


Tibetan broadcloth appliqué fragment first half 19th c.
Probably using British broadcloth

A press clipping from the Daily Telegraph, 1951.

This press clipping from the London Times 1929, recently unearthed during the construction of our new Studios, clearly shows that there is nothing new about the situation in Afghanistan.

A painting by the Portsmouth artist Roger Morris of Misin Tuodraneb the famous Tehran Boss of Bosses has recently been discovered . The scene depicts heady pre-revolutionary days. Misin is seen surrounded by members of the Teheran Underworld and his cohorts. Mike ‘Little Boney’ Sesnairf is seen in an awkward pose amongst his fathers peers lighting the cigarette of Edrof Sinned.
A similar scene on a Teheran or Kirman small carpet but in the Qajar manner was identified and accurately catalogued in a late 1970s Christie's London sale.

Rodney Young’s excavation for the University of Pennsylvania in 1957 caused a sensation when after excavating the massive mound raised outside the citadel at Gordion, Central Turkey he claimed to have found the tomb of the legendary King Midas who died around 718BC. This tomb was stuffed with furniture, bronze and textiles but no Midas Gold!
The ruler was buried exactly as he was originally laid down by his people. Until recent technological innovation it has been difficult to make much of such perishable remains. Patrick McGovern, a senior scientist at the University of Pennsylvania has named a new science - ‘Molecular Archaeology’ which has harnesses techniques from analytic chemistry and molecular biology. Using these methods he has gone about identifying the desiccated leftovers of the Midas funeral feast and published the menu of the meal in the journal Nature down to the detail of the ingredients of the punch and meat spices. He is quoted as saying “These techniques make it possible to figure out what people were really doing,the kinds of clothing they wore, the kinds of buildings they put up and the food and drink they enjoyed”. Although in 1957 the methods of chemical analysis were in their infancy samples were sent to Pennsylvania and the food samples were said to be in pottery vessels.*
Such results can be obtained economically from existing samples in Museum collections without the need to further disturb archaeological sites.
Unlike the Egyptians the Phrygians left no record of their leaders. We only know of Midas from Greek history and fables such as the famous story of the Golden Touch . These accounts originate from the time Greek Colonists who colonised the region they called Ionia (Anatolia) from the 8th cent.BC
One wonders if the University of Pennsylvania has textile samples and if there might be similar material from this or other excavations to work on. Since it was this site that gave the expression ‘Gordion Knot’ perhaps (rather than after the town Ghiordes in W. Anatolia) and the subsequent adoption of the term for the technical description of the symmetrical Turkish Knot in carpet making. Any evidence offered up here might be significant textile and carpet history in the very region in which sheep and goat husbandry as we know it developed which probably gave rise to the expression Golden Fleece.

* basic information taken from an article ‘Midas mystery clue served up on a plate’ by John Fleischman
The Guardian Newspaper. 13 Jan. 2001

Clive Rogers

We have recently completed the cleaning and restoration of an English customers 4 Chinese sample rugs.

These rugs which were probably manufacturers samples that were obtained in Peking in the early part of the 20th cent . Having newly married her Russian grandparents left St. Petersburg for the Russian enclave Harbin in Manchuria where they lived from 1903/4 to the late 1920s. The grandfather travelled extensively as #2 Senior Executive for the Eastern China Railway Company. They moved to Shanghai in the late 1920s where they remained until 1949. Whilst Persian 'Wagirehs' are occasionally seen sample rugs such as these are almost unique to the writer although one wonders why there are not more of them."

A fine Talish design Kurdish plain white ground runner. size approx. 4.00 x 0.90 metres.

This rug was stolen from a shop in Walcote Street, Bath on January 4th 1984. The runner had a twin and this may have been cf. Christie’s London lot 27 July 8th 1984(?) the Christie’s piece was we believe shorter Both runners were previously the property of David Black Carpets, Portland Road, London. The runner had a urine stain clearly visible at the time at one end.

A reward of £500 for information directly leading to the return of this runner is currently offered.