Our local Tesco superstore has a little used book stand. I’ll usually have a look at why they’ve got. And typically it’s all of no interest to me. But on the most recent visit, they had a few artier titles (should I have got the Howard Hodgkin book, I wonder?).
Anyway, I got this book, on oriental rugs. I love traditional rugs, from the Old World. I also got a paperback edition of Kerouac’s Dharma Bums. Thinking I might give the latter to a young friend or relative (Sam, or my Godson Ailwyn, perhaps?).
Truth be told, I’m not blown away by the choices of rugs in this book. They’re fascinating, by and large. But also not to my tastes. But the same is true of the vast majority of rugs on any given trader’s website.
The above is gorgeous. And would be almost perfect, if it were the right dimensions, for our art studio.
Most of the rugs are Persian, some Indian. Not many are Chinese. The seat-back above is a rare example of the latter.
At present I’m just bathing in the opulent magnificence of the collection, from a purely visual and aesthetic perspective. I might take this book with me, today, on our brief barge break? I may even read some of the text?