RECENT PAST MEETINGS

March Newsletter 2009

New Acquisitions, Old Favorites, and Mystery Pieces... Bring yours for the Annual Members' Show and Tell and Market Wednesday, March 18, 2009 Emmett Eiland's Oriental Rug Company 1326 Ninth St. (just south of Gilman), Berkeley Refreshments at 6:30 p.m. Show and Tell and Moth Market at 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.

MOTH MARKET

For our March event we are going to try to do something a little different--a Moth Market. not that we want your moth ridden pieces! This will be a chance to offer for sale or trade any SMALLER pieces that you might want to dispose of. In general, this means bringing small pieces that are typically of lower value (i.e. $100-$1000) to see if anyone else falls in love with them. Obviously it is much harder to trade or sell more valuable items which we think are best left to professional dealers.

Please restrict yourself to a maximum two pieces for sale or trade. Note: All transactions will be strictly between the two members, and neither SFBARS nor Eiland's will take any responsibility for prices or payments nor vouch for the value of any pieces or the fairness of the deals negtotiated. All those who bring in pieces for sale or trade will be asked to tag them and to sign a brief waiver of responsibility.

SHOW AND TELL

At the same time we will have our popular annual Show and Tell, so members can show off their latest (Ft. Mason Show?) acquisitions, favorites from the bottom of the cedar chest, or those mystifying purchases that you have always wondered about. We will grab some people from the audience to act as panelists and commentators, showing off their expertise and tact. Since we only have two hours to gt through everyone's treasures, please bring in not more than two or three pieces for us to look at; and then tell us your story about them: where you got them, why you liked them.

This time I would like to organize tables by categories: Anatolia, Caucasus, Iran, Baluch and Entral Asia and all other. We will rotate among the tables for presentations.

Any questions, please call me (Peter Poullada) on my mobile 415-602-07

Please join us -- whether or not you have something to show or sell! This is a social evening! See you at Eiland's!

Coming Event:
Because of the now cancelled ACOR, we had not planned any event for April. In May or early June you will receive the announcement for our Annual Picnic at Jim Dixon's Carpet Palace and Garden Paradise.

[Members: If you know of upcoming lectures, exhibitions or the like of potential interest to the SFBARS membership, please send the information to elizabeth.shedd@att.net.]

February Newsletter 2009

Small South Persian Tribal Weavings

Ann Nicholas and Richard Blumenthal

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Krimsa Gallery

2190 Union Street (at Filmore), San Francisco. 415-441-4321

(Nearest public parking garage is three blocks away, on Pierce, between Lombard and Chestnut.)

Refreshments at 6:30 p.m. Presentation at 7:15 p.m.

Members’ Show and Tell of Small South Persian Weavings

Bring your favorites to share!

Ann Nicholas and Richard Blumenthal will share their enthusiasm for the colorful bags woven by the south Persian nomads, which they have been acquiring for twenty years.

After collecting for a few years, they began to wonder how weavings were really used in nomadic life. So they began reading the historical and ethnographic literature, interviewing people who had experience with the South Persian nomads, and searching for photographs of their nomadic life which show weavings in use. They found thousands of photographs, many unpublished, in rare and out of print books, university and museum archives, and personal collections of ethnographers.

Their work confirms many ideas about South Persian nomadic weavings; however, some commonly held notions need to be reexamined, especially those about piled saddlebags.

Now they have two collections: small south Persian tribal weavings and pictures of nomadic life. Their talk is illustrated with pieces from both collections. First they will review south Persian nomadic life with emphasis on how nomadic weavings are used and then discuss the conditions in 19th century Persia that fostered the weaving of piled saddlebags.

For a show and tell they will bring some of their own pieces and they encourage others to bring small south Persian weavings.

Ann Nicholas and Richard Blumenthal are long standing members of the New England Rug Society. Ann has written articles for its newsletter and exhibition reviews for HALI magazine.

Their collection of small south Persian tribal weavings was exhibited at ACOR 8, where they gave a focus lecture on the south Persian nomadic life and weavings. Recently they published two articles in HALI: “South Persian Tribal Weavings: Their Use in Nomadic Life,” HALI 150, 2007, pp 90-97; and “The Mystery Unraveled: Knotted-pile Saddlebags,” HALI 151, 2007, pp 66-73.


February 6-8. Arts of Pacific Asia Show at Fort Mason.

February 13-15. Tribal and Textile Arts Show at Fort Mason.

February 14. "Cloth and the Kazak Worldview," the Second Annual Lecture in Honor of Caroline and H. McCoy Jones. 7:30 pm in Koret Auditorium, deYoung Museum. At a 7:00, anyone interested can attend a walkthrough of the Textile Arts Department's conservation lab at the museum. There will also be a reception hosted by the Textile Arts Department and the Department of African, Oceanic, and American Art of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. SFBARS

Event

March 18, New Acquisitions and Mystery Rugs, plus the first SFBARS ‘Moth Market,’ a chance not only to show off pieces but to offer them for trade or sale.

An evening of socializing to allow members to exchange tales of collecting. Emmet Eiland’s gallery in Berkeley.

SFBARS End of May. Annual visit to Jim Dixon's carpet palace in Occidental.

Event

Report on the Third SFBARS Auction and Annual Party at Fort Mason


We’d like to thank all members who participated in the highly successful social event and silent auction. We are happy to report we raised almost $4,000 to support the Society’s programs, including our sponsorship of the annual Caroline and McCoy Jones Memorial Lecture at the deYoung Museum in February. Special thanks to John and Donna Sommer for their generous contributions, and to Pat and Gary Leiser for their patience in storing all the items in their attic. We hope we can do something similar at the end of 2009, but will need members’ donations.

February 8. The Caves of Dunhuang in Photographs by Jian Wu. Opening of exhibit at 1:30 p.m.(which runs through March 15), followed by screening of the film “Mongol” commented by Alma Kunanbaeva.

Jian Wu is the official photographer of the Dunhuang Research Institute in China. He has won many awards and has published an album “Scenic Spots & Historical Sites On Silk Road” (Xingjiang People's Publishing House, 2000).

Photographs include landscapes and the fascinating frescos of Dunhuang, the stunning Buddhist caves in Western China. Known as Mogaoku , ''peerless caves,'' they were created from the 5th to 14th centuries and are like nothing else in the Chinese Buddhist world. Read more on-line:
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/07/06/arts/0706-COTT_2.html

The exhibit will be open for public viewing four times weekly: Thursdays and Fridays (4 to 7 p.m.) and weekends (1 to 4 p.m.). Silk Road House, 1944 University Ave., Berkeley 94705. Tel.: 510-981-0700.

February 11. "Hai, Nozanin," the Bukharan Jewish Folk Ensemble of Queens, New York, performing sacred songs and prayers, secular classical music (fragments of maqoms), traditional wedding rites and songs, tunes and rhythms of Bukhara.

The Bukhara tradition is a unique blend of Turkic-Persian-Arab-Sephardic Jewish roots. Hai, Nozanin’s colorful Silk Road attire, folk instruments, singing style, dancing and spectacular presentation will give a rare and fascinating opportunity to hear the leading proponents of an ancient musical tradition saturated with inimitable rhythms and captivating tone colors.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009, 7:30 p.m., Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut Street, Berkeley, CA 94709. $18/$15.

February 22. Festive Tatar program with music and costumes. 1 – 3 p.m.