The National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina is holding an exhibition of Persian Safavid carpets from the Mahan Shrine. The show runs until February 2019, and includes the rare sighting of the 17th century Persian Kerman vase technique carpet fragment, revealed to the public in February of this year. Lyon & Turnbull is holding their Five Centuries auction in Edinburgh on the 14th November 2018. It includes a selection of thirty Turkmen rugs and weaving's from a British private collection. All the major tribal groups are featured, from Balouch to Tekke. The highlights are probably a mid-19th century Tekke and Ersari main carpets, and an early 19th century Chodor piece. At Tennants Autumn Fine Art Sale on the 17th November 2018, a rare Persian silk Kashan souf rug in prayer format is the star lot. The sale will feature over 600 lots including Asian ceramics and works of art, as well as a good selection of oriental rugs and carpets.  

At Sotheby's London on the 3rd-6th November 2018 are holding a sale of twenty-five rugs and carpets from the collection of Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza, featuring rare Chinese works including the Scofield-Thayer dais carpet and a beautiful silk Kashgar carpet. Further exemplary weaves from Central Asia and China include the Larsson dais carpet and a collection of Yarkand and Khotan works from an American collector, including one with rare large-trefoil border. A second group from a Western collector, the first well received in 2017, which includes a well articulated Selendi Bird carpet fragment and an unusual Transylvanian is on offer. Further Transylvanian include one with a unique blue ground, two more from Thyssen and one from the respected dealer Eberhart Herrmann who has consigned a selection of early Anatolian and Caucasian rugs, including the Wher Chajli rug and Schurmamn Karagashli carpet. Carpet traditions of Persia and India are represented by 17th century fragments and examples of later room sized carpets, offer a broad choice of rugs and carpets for the collector and decorator. Further sales in London are being held at Chiswick Auctions on 26th October 2018, their Islamic & Indian Art including Fine Rugs & Carpets. The Oriental Rug Centre at Staples Corner London has received some new shipments of fine Persian rugs and carpets. David J Wilkins oriental rug experts has seen a marked increase in business this Autumn. www.orientalrugexperts.com

The upcoming international auction at Bruun Rasmussen, 19th September and 27th September 2018, includes a fine variety of more than 70 oriental rugs and carpets, European tapestries and modern design rugs. Among the highlights are a stunning 19th century North West Persian Bakshaish (estimate £28,000), a highly decorative Brussels tapestry, a large Royal Mashed niche design carpet and a classic 19th century Caucasian Kazak Karachop rug. The modern rug section offers a selection of Swedish flat weave rugs designed by famous artists such as Marta Maas-Fjetterstom, Irma Kronlund, Karl Dangel and others. The first major exhibition to explore the material culture of the Armenian people in a global context, spanning fourteen centuries, Armenia! opens at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York on 22nd September 2018. Rare textiles such as a 17th century New Julfa alter frontal from Holy Etchmiadzin, are found among illustrated manuscripts, liturgical furnishings, cross stones and gilded reliquaries. Many exhibits are from Armenian collections and have not travelled before. Austria Auction Company are holding their Fine Antique Oriental Rugs XII sale, at Palais Breuner in Vienna on 29th September 2018. It comprises of 212 lots of collectible rugs and carpets, all offered at very accessible starting prices, which do not reflect the high quality of the lots. Around a third of the rugs have been consigned by the estate of the respected Swiss collector Theo Haeberli, including a number of pieces of known provenance for which significant prices have previously been paid, either privately or at auction. The Haeberli consignment includes a three medallion Khotan rug circa 1800 (lot 68), a very unusual and elaborate early 20th century large west Anatolian Smyrna carpet (lot 210), and many other interesting pieces. Here in London The Oriental rug and carpet trade is seeing a marked increase in trade after the hot summer. and at David J.Wilkins Oriental rug experts the importance is to continue to provide an expert  service to all its clients, what ever their budget. www.orientalrugexperts.com    

The 14th Sartirana Textile Show (STS) will be held from 13th September-16th September 2018 in Sartirana Lomellina at La Pila, in the 17th century rice mill located besides the Sartirana Castle. The fair has been held every year since 2005 and is one of the most important fairs for tribal antique rugs and textiles. The 10th Antique Rug & Textile show (ARTS) will take place from 19th October-21st October 2018 at Greenwich Inn San Francisco. Over the last decade ARTS has become a leading venue in the US for authentic tribal rugs and textiles. London's Oriental Rug Centre has just received a new shipment of Afghan rugs and carpets, including Ziegler and contemporary designed pieces. www.orientalrugexperts.com

London is to host the only tribal art fair of its kind in the UK, Tribal Art London returns to the Mall Galleries on the 4th-8th September 2018. Around twenty international dealers will exhibit. There will also be a series of lectures from top specialists and organisations, such as the Royal Academy of Arts. US sanctions against Iran took effect on Tuesday 7th August 2018. In defiance of the US, the European Union urged its companies to continue and even bolster trade with Tehran, despite American threats of sanctions against them for doing business. EU diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini said the bloc, as well as Britain, France and Germany, deeply regretted Washington's move. Iran's hand-woven rug and carpet industry controls 30 percent of the global market, with the US being the largest consumer. Here in London, David J.Wilkins Oriental rugs have seen it all before. This is the third US embargo we have traded through, and as before it will have little or no impact on the London market. www.orientalrugexperts.com

While London and the UK bask in sunshine, The Oriental Rug Centre in London is receiving wonderful new stock of Persian carpets, rugs and runners, as well as some beautiful new kilims. So if you can tear yourself away from the world cup, please feel free to call us at David J Wilkins Oriental Rugs, and make an appointment to view the vast selection of handmade oriental rugs and carpets at Staples corner London NW2 7TS. www.orientalrugexperts.com London's Chiswick Auctions are delighted to announce its next specialist sale of Islamic & Indian Art including Fine Rugs & Carpets, taking place on 11th July 2018. The summer sale offers an exciting curated selection of arts of the Qajar era (1794-1925), as well as fine rugs and carpets, showcasing the richness and variety of Persian artistic production during the 19th century. One of the sale highlights is an extremely rare pair of cut silk velvet panels woven in Kashan, Persia circa 1840s. United since the day they left the loom, the pair reached the elegant home of a London-based collector in the early 1990s through the hands of one of Mayfair's most experienced textile connoisseurs. Crafted using the purest natural dyes, with a central diamond-shaped white medallion on a clear red ground, with stylized white tulips in the boarder, and green dashes along the selvedge end, the pair is a sublime illustration of the Velvet Revolution during the Qajar era. The Islamic Art and Florence from the Medici to the 20th Century exhibition, will be held from June 19th-September 23rd 2018, at the Uffizi and the Museo Nazionale del Bargello in Florence. Between the 15th and early 17th century, a wealth of Islamic works of art from around the Mediterranean found their way to Florence, and this exhibition sheds light on this artistic exchange and its 19th century revival, drawing on the city's vast collections, augmented by some key loans. A number of rarely displayed carpets and textiles are among the highlights.

David J.Wilkins Oriental Rugs London are pleased to announce, that we are now open for business on Sundays. This has been long in the planning, and we hope it will be an added opportunity for busy people to come to the Oriental Rug Centre at London NW2 7TS, and view the massive stock of handmade, Persian, Afghan, Indian, Moroccan and many other rugs and carpets, which we source from all over the world. We would kindly ask people to make an appointment for Sunday viewing's to avoid delays. The Manhattan Art & Antiques Centre, will be holding an auction on 12th June 2018, featuring property from the estate of Jane N. Rothschild. More than one hundred lots of the estate are offered including Persian rugs and textiles. Parisian auctioneers Gros & Delettrez are pleased to announce the sale 'Orientalisme' to be held at Hotel Drouot, Paris on 25th June 2018, including important North African and Central African textiles as well as embroideries, carpets and other weaving's. The Lady and the Unicorn tapestry series, from the Musee de Cluny in Paris, are being shown in Sydney Australia at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, for an exhibition that lasts until the 24 June 2018. www.orientalrugexperts.com  

For the first 40 years of its existence, circumstances prevented the Carpet Museum of Iran from revealing its treasures to the world. However this year, a major exhibition has brought this beautiful Museum back to life. On 11th February 1978, the Carpet Museum of Iran was inaugurated, a testament to the Persian heritage and skilled carpet weaving it has long been famous for. But by the end of the museums first anniversary the Iranian revolution was in full swing. In the intervening years successive museum directors had little room for action, and certainly had no opportunity to organise large exhibitions. Practically nothing would change in the display year to year. So we were pleased to hear that the current directors have decided to put the museum back on the international map where it belongs. Forty year on, a special exhibition titled Forty Safavid Relics, The 40th Anniversary of the Carpet Museum of Iran. In Vienna the Dorotheum is holding a special sale of Oriental carpets and rugs from the Abil Besim Collection on Thursday 19th June 2018. Abil Besim was one of the Austrian Capital's leading firm's of carpet dealers and was established in 1946. Here in London we are finalizing the Sunday opening of the Oriental Rug Centre at Staples Corner, and will bring you news as soon as possible. www.orientalrugexperts.com  

We have a number of Oriental rug and carpet auctions to look forward to this Spring/Summer. Bruun Rasmussen, Copenhagen, will hold four auctions from 29th May to 8th June 2018, and will feature a number of fine Asian rugs as well as classical oriental rugs and carpets, with a few antique Russian and some modern designer rugs. Highlights include a 16th-17th century Ushak fragment, and a rare heptagonal Yomut Turkman Asmalyk, a highly decorative Persian Heriz carpet and an important Caucasian Moghan long rug. Other lots to note include a historical Persian Isfahan Nader Shah rug, a Qing-dynasty silk and metal thread dragon rug, a Barbro Nilsson Snackorna flatweave rug and last but not least a Russian Shirvan rug depicting the family of the Tsar. Rippon Boswell will hold a Major Spring sale on 2nd June 2018. The sale will feature 225 lots covering a wide variety of good quality 18th-20th century Oriental rugs and carpets. Henry's of Mutterstadt, Germany, will hold its sale of Collector Rugs & Carpets on June 9th 2018, and will include lots and pieces from a private collection previously published by Eberhart Herrmann. These include Shahsavan bagfaces, Caucasian pieces and a rare Luri gabbeh. There is a good selection of Persian town rugs and carpets, with some pictorial pieces such as Kashan form the master weaver Javad Tabatabai with the story of Bahram Gur and the Shepard. And also in the news is that the 14th International Conference on Oriental Carpets (ICOC XIV) will come to Washington, DC from 7-11 June 2018 in collaboration with, and in support of, the Textile Museum and George Washington University Museum.  

A very good day was had at the London salerooms. Bonhams in New Bond held its Oriental classical-period carpet sale, on Thursday 26th April 2018. Many of the carpets were fresh to the international market, but with some well known pieces making a return. First up was a large-medallion Turkish Ushak carpet of the second half of the 16th century (lot 95). Formerly in the collection of ambassador Ghazi Aita, it was last sold at Christie's in London in October 2001 for £135,750, it sold within estimate for £181,250, one of the highest prices ever paid at auction for an Ushak carpet of this design type. In the afternoon, the final selection of Christie's 'Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds' at King Street featured a trio of previously unknown Ushak Lotto arabesque carpets, consigned by an Italian noble family descendants from a number of cardinals and Pope Alexander VII (d.1667), from whom the family may have inherited the rugs. All three performed considerably better than might have been expected. The first, lot 258, a Lotto carpet in good condition, was estimated at £40-60,000, but was vigorously competed up to £187,500. The next lot 259, was an early 17th century Transylvanian type of Lotto, estimated at £30-40,000, it was purchased in the UK for £60,000. The top carpet at Christie's was lot 295, a large Persian Safavid Isfahan gallery carpet. This great carpet of the Braganza type, was estimated at £80-120,000, and after a fierce bidding war, sold for £248,750. Across the channel, Artcurial's Antiquities, Islamic & Pre-Columbian Art auction, will be held in Paris on Tuesday 22nd May 2018, the sale offers a selection of Persian Malayer, Bakhtiari, Qum and senneh rugs and carpets, among them a fine Qajar period silk carpet depicting an Annunciation scene.