Imre Jakabffy (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 2. (Budapest, 1974)

GOMBOS, Károly: An interesting Tekke-Turkoman carpet

KÁROLY GOMBOS AN INTERESTING TEKKE-TURKOM AN CARPET The Society of Hungarian Collectors and Art-Lovers organized an exhibition in Budapest in 1929. In the foreword of the catalogue showing the objects of the exhibition the Society's Presidency specified their aims as follows: ". . . Our selection of the objects was exercised by the intention to furnish a full idea, as far as possible, about the art of the Orient from the beginnings to the middle of the 19th century."

1 The exhibited 908 pieces of Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Indonesian, Tibetan, Persian and Turkish origin as well as the Asian carpets and rugs were listed by Károly Csányi and Zoltán Felvinczi Takács. They compiled the catalogue of the exhibition as well, published in Hungarian and German languages. Károly Csányi, the eminent scientist of applied arts worded the 10th chapter of the catalogue enumerating the exhibited carpets under registry numbers from 845 to 906. Among them there were 42 Central Asian, 8 Chinese and 1 Indian carpets.

2 It is surprising how large the number of the early carpets of Central Asia was, even if we consider the preceding years' exhibitions of Asia Minor, Caucasian and Persian rugs. From the Central Asian rugs (including also the knotted and woven bags and other objects) 29 pieces were made in the 18th, 6 pieces in the 18—19th and 6 pieces in the 19th centuries, according to the catalogue's data. The fact that 29 of the 42 exhibited Central Asian carpets were dated to the 18th century is remarkable even if we consider that private collectors were exhibiting the outstanding pieces of their collections, and it doubtless added to the value of their artistic objects if they dated them to be somewhat of an earlier period. As is well-known, the interwar period's most dignified collectors — whose informations we may doubt, but the richness of their collections we may not — took part in the exhibition. Where may these valuable Central Asian carpets have got to? What may have happened to them in the past decades? The quoted catalogue mentions by type 22 Bokhara, 8 Yomud, 5 Beshir, 5 Samarkand and 2 Central Asian carpets. Even supposing that some of them may have been taken to the Museum's Collection, their identification is difficult for the lack of data and photos. The identification can be hoped only in a few cases when the carpet collection of the Museum of Applied Arts was enriched by buyings or donations and 129