After my return to America I spent several months trying to interest American dealers in the DOBAG rugs, getting what a friend of mine calls the "Dear Lady" routine in response. So in the spirit of "Why not?" I decided to import a few myself. Success was commensurate with investment, buyers coming from the design-conscious set who immediately responded to the saturated colors and bold designs. Encouraged by this success I looked for a place to show to a broad audience. To my mind, The World Bank is an appropriate place to showcase cottage industry. After the months of lobbying and negotiations befitting an international organization, it was agreed and The Rug Project, my organization, mounted an exhibition of nearly 100 DOBAG carpets. The exhibition was a resounding success and by general account the most successful show yet mounted at the Bank. It was held over an additional week at the express request of the Bank's senior staff and attracted wide attention. When Deputy Secretary of Commerce Clarence J. Brown opened an economic conference in Istanbul in January, he cited the World Bank show, along with the Süleyman show, as an example of closer ties between Turkey and the United States. As a Turkish weaving enthusiast, I am particularly happy to be responsible for the fact that there is now a whole new group of the general public who realize the term "Oriental carpet" embraces the Turkish tradition. Rugs at the exhibition sold very well with hot competition on opening night for favorites such as the green ground Yuntdag lotus carpet pictured here. Chemical washing fanatics and proponents of the faded look may be interested to know that some people actually described DOBAG colors as subdued.
Given present levels of production and price, DOBAG is not about to saturate the American market tomorrow; however, its indisputable quality has won a niche among design-conscious individuals, and Americans will have an increasing opportunity to see DOBAG rugs now that The Rug Project is furnishing rugs to designers in the Northeast.
Size has up to now been a severely limiting factor with DOBAG rugs, but this past winter the Ayvaçik cooperatives purchased several large looms which will permit production of carpets up to the standard 8xl2 size so requested by decorators and required by the American dining table. I saw the first of these larger rugs on my visit to Ayvaçik in January. Despite, or perhaps because of, the amount of organization needed to coordinate weavers for a large project under the imece or work-sharing system that prevails in Turkish villages, the large carpets are particularly good and show the best work of the weavers at the moment.
The mixed technique flatweaves which are to be found on the floors of village homes and in every bride's dowry have never been numerous at the cooperative since these flatweaves cannot readily fetch the price of knotted pile carpets requiring comparable labor. The cooperative has now decided to offer these flatweaves at a reduced price in an effort to make this part of the local tradition better known and to provide an incentive to the best weavers to seek recognition in this medium. A rug which the weavers had intended as part of their contribution to a friend's dowry, having been praised by its viewers, is now going to the cooperative.
