Heard in the Bazaar

"Although there is much war in the world today due to differing cultures and ideas, textiles are something that all peoples have in common. In places as diverse as Turkey and China, Europe and America, Egypt and the Caucasus, people have been weaving textiles, using similar techniques, for thousands of years. This is a common heritage for all peoples; we cannot characterize what we have here as only 'Turkish culture'; it's not, it's an international culture, handed down to us by our grandparents and their grandparents before them. Carpets are a meeting point for all peoples of the world."



Mustafa Bulguroglu of Ankara's Galeri Afrodit, quoted by Helen Betts in Turkish Daily News, 2004



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"In trying to think and talk about carpets, I find myself constantly comparing them with music ... carpets made by the nomads and tribeswomen have the character of folk music ... the cottage-made carpet is like the performance of a solo entertainer with a repertoire of popular and traditional songs ... in contrast the workshop carpet, especially the court carpet, resembles a concerto."



Jon Thompson, 'Oriental Carpets - from the tents, cottages, and workshops of Asia,' Dutton Studio Books, 1983



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"Oriental carpets have been recognized as prestigious furnishing in the West since the Middle Ages. In many ways, they represent the epitome of Western concern with alien things – especially utilitarian alien things. Carpets entered the Western cultural arena as a rare item of interest and eventually became a commodity. But commoditization does not adequately explain their continuing success in the market or the special attention they receive from collectors."



Brian Spooner, ‘Weavers and Dealers: the authenticity of an oriental carpet.' From the book 'The Social Life of Things,' 1988

