The inaugural week-long festival (June 24-30) features a fair (June 27-30) at the Mall Galleries where dealer David Sorgato will offer this 17th century double-niche blue Transylvanian rug right with a cartouche border from west Anatolia (Turkey).
These rugs were used to adorn the walls of Protestant churches in Romania, and this example used to hang in the Black Church in Brasov. It is offered for £106,000.
Sorgato is among the 24 international dealers at the event, such as Brian Macdonald, Clive Rogers and Amin Motademi. They offer a huge selection of textiles including Berber rugs, suzani embroideries, ikat textiles and Tunisian indigo shawls.
The whole festival has been organised to celebrate the publication’s 40th anniversary and 200th edition.
The programme of events includes lectures at the Courtauld Institute of Art and the National Gallery of Art, a private viewing of the Bell Carpet at Girdlers’ Hall and a visit to the V&A archives at the Clothmakers Centre in Blythe House in west London.
Following these is the HALI Great British Collections Tour (June 30–July 7), a trip from Manchester through Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire and Boughton House in Northamptonshire to the Cotswolds.
HALI magazine is an international quarterly publication.
