FRONTLINESENEWS

ENEWS

FULL VERSIONS OF THE FOLLOWING ARTICLES AND REVIEWS APPEAR ON WWW.HALI.COM. WRITE TO EDITOR lucy.upward@centaur.co.uk

THE DUNDAS COLLECTION

Accordingto Thomas Murray, a remarkable event in the chronicles of non-Western art took place on 5 October 2006 when the last field-collected group of Northwest Coast artefacts still in private hands finally came up for sale at Sotheby’s in New York, and history was made. Described as “arguably the most artistically and historically significant collection of American Indian art ever to be offered at auction”, the Dundas Collection achieved world record prices when 57 lots, including this Tsimshian polychromed wood face mask (left), sold for some $7 million. These ‘treasures of Canadian national heritage’ were bought on behalf of the Canadian nation with privately raised funding from the Thompson family by the Toronto dealer Donald Ellis. Posted on hali.com Wednesday 29 November 2006

AMERICANA SAMPLER SETS WORLD RECORD PRICE

At Christie’s in New York on 18 January 2007, a silk on linen pictorial embroidery (above) set a new benchmark for an American sampler when it was bought for $329,600 by America’s leading dealer in antique samplers, needlework and silk embroidery, the Philadelphia base specialists M. Finkel & Daughter. Posted on hali.com Monday 29 January 2007

TKF MEETING IN VIENNA

The Technical Museum Vienna hosted the TKF meeting on 17 March 2007. On show was a selection of astonishingly modern looking 19th century textiles from Emperor Franz’s Nationalfabriksproduktenkabinett, founded in 1807, and shown especially for TKF members during a day of interesting talks and an exhibition tour. This was followed by a visit to the textile conservation studio of the University of Applied Art, where a 13th century silk and gold thread cope, depicting griffons, lions and birds (detail right) was shown to the TKF visitors. Markus Voigt Posted on hali.com Thursday 29 March2007

BLACKBORNE LACE IN DURHAM

Successful lace company A. Blackborne & Co., was founded by Anthony Blackborne in 1850, when lace was growing in popularity among the English middle classes. The exhibition ‘Fashion and Fashionable. Lace from the Blackborne Collection’, currently on show at the Bowes Museum in Durham, England until 29 April 2007, displays pieces from the collection of Anthony Blackborne, which remains almost as it was when he died. The range of lace exhibited is wonderfully broad and rich, from the 16th to the early 20th century. Posted on hali.com, Friday 13 April 2007

CAMBODIAN CLOTHS FROM CHINALAI

Lee and Vichai Chinalai from Shoreham in New York have established themselves as the leading dealers of Chinese Minority and Mainland Southeast Asian textiles in the United States. They have done so by presenting at major art fairs artistically striking and intellectually engaging items such as this ‘ship cloth’ pidan (detail above), which are not only beautiful but often relatively early. Contributing editor Thomas Murray, a past curator of such exhibits, reviewed the special display of Khmer weft ikat diagonal twill weavings from Cambodia, presented by Lee and Vichai Chinalai during the San Francisco Arts of Pacific Asia Show (911 February 2007). This exceptional collection was assembled over decades and was revealed in San Francisco for the first time. Posted on hali.com Thursday 1 March 2007

ENEWS FROM THE EDITOR

● THE TEXTILE SOCETY of Great Britain celebrate their 25th anniversary this year with a two-day symposium at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum on 14-15 September 2007. See Textiles at Dawnon hali.com for a review of their March 2007 Textile Fair in Manchester. www.textilesociety.org.uk

● EASY-USE WEBSITES can be hard to find.One great example is the site of the Textile Museum of Canada,with great images of current exhibits that can be zoomed up to an impressive degree. www.textilemuseum.ca

● “DEDICATED TObringing knowledge and appreciation of the textile arts to a wider audience”is the aim of Michael Franses’ Textile Art website. The site no longer displays textiles for sale,and is now devoted solely to exhibitions and publications in which the company is involved. www.textile-art.com

● THE RUG RABBITwebsite is definitely worth viewing.The busy carpet selling site is run by the inimitable Sam Coad and seems to be establishing itself as an active online rug marketplace. www.rugrabbit.com

● THE TEXTILE MUSEUM launched a new online exhibition of classical Khorasan carpets entitled ‘Pieces of Puzzle’ on 5 February 2007.With nine carpet fragments,maps and diagrams it is aimed at all levels of knowledge. www.textilemuseum.org/ pieces/index.html

HALI ISSUE 15141