10/1/18 Thin is in ! And don’t you forget it ,!!!

10/1/18

Tragic news to start the week !

Via con Dios , Famed French vocalist Charles Aznavour passed away today at the age of 94 . An international legend , he will certainly be missed by anyone who appreciates music , but fear not sir , your legacy in the arts world will live on !

10/2/18

Next up on the 2018 fall rug auction calendar , Christie’s , London’s , “Arts of the Islamic and Indian Worlds including Oriental Rugs and Carpets” is live “ on the line” now for your viewing pleasure .The sale features 382 total lots of which include approximately 29 textiles and susani’s and 104 rugs and carpets .

So after multiple passes through the sale inventory it appears to be a reasonably diverse group with East Turkestan (H. Konig coll. items ) and Persian city items well represented but being “very” weak on notable Turkmen pieces .

There are also 3 classic Lotto carpets one of which ( lot# 307 ) is the piece i featured in the blog on 7//17/17 which sold at the “Leslie Hindman Auction Gallery” in Chicago , Ill. Listed at the “Hindman” sale as Caucasian with a pre-sale estimate of $3-500.00 it did much better ! Check the blog post , all the details are there .

As for the textiles and susani’s there are some better pieces but nothing that really peaked my interest .

All that said and done in a time when good , fresh , items are hard to come by for everyone Ms Broadhurst and the Christie’s rug dept. did a pretty good job assembling this selection . Not much in the way of things i would want but still a fairly wide-ranging assortment .

So here you go with a few pieces that caught my and i thought were at least moderately noteworthy are posted below.

Lot # 217 , Iznik Cintamani tile . Pre-sale estimate £ 30-50,000.00 . Not a rug but still my favorite piece in the whole sale !

Lot # 230 , Ottoman quilt panel . Pre- sale estimate £ 10-15,000.00 . Yes , i said the textile selection was uninteresting but this one grew on me ?

Lot # 286 , Khotan frag . Pre-sale estimate £3-5000.00 . A very reasonable pre-sale est. considering it’s a Konig piece and a fairly scarce design but as always it’s not where you start is’s where you finish !

Lot # 324 , Silk Farahan rug . Pre-sale estimate £ 4-6,000.00 . Gaudy to the point that it’s kinda cool !

10/3/18

10/4/18

Now for the one you have all been waiting for !

Skinner’s , Boston , Ma. , Oct. 21st , fall rug, carpet and textile spectacular featuring Pt.1 of the “Ronnie Newman” coll.is up and running on the Skinner’s website . The sale includes 330 total lots of as usual a wide selection from all major rug and textile weaving areas . Pt.1 of the R.Newman Coll. features approximately 135+ lots and it is certainly the highlight of the entire sale . The rest of the items are standard Skinner’s type pieces with unfortunately nothing to get excited about . Yes , there are some better things but nothing that truly stands out .

One thing that does standout about sale is the very conservative and reasonable pre-sale estimates on the Newman Coll. items . How L.K. pulled this one off is not known but it will certainly lead to plenty of competion on those particular pieces .

Up to this point this is the high water mark of the fall, 2018 auction season , but as always things could change !

Kudos to L.K. and Skinner’s for the realistic buying opportunity but it’s still not where you start , as always it’s where you finish !

As you would surmise there are plenty of stellar lots in this sale inventory . I can’t post everything i liked but a few i kept going back to are featured below .