But it was now May 14th. Aeroflot left on schedule and arrived on time. Our group cleared customs and was on the way to the Hotel Leningrad by Intourist bus in under an hour. The Hotel Leningrad is a large 10 story building overlooking the Neva River with fine views of the city. The lucky ones got rooms with a great view of the river, the ship Aurora, and down river the spire of Peter and Paul and dome of St. Isaacs. Others of us on the backside had a view of a construction site, long inactive, filled by an algal green lake.
After a late dinner in the disco/dining room to the sounds of a blasting, live rock band, everyone was in bed by midnight.
This was the only non-scheduled conference day, so plans had to be made about sights to see. This meant dealing with lntourist - a fortifying breakfast was in order.
The scene at the Intourist desk, where appointments for all events and tours are made, looked like the I.N.S. Office on the last day of the alien amnesty. Sharp elbows, deep seated desire, and an aggressive personality were needed to secure one's chosen reservation. I opted for a tour of the city in the morning and a visit to the Hermitage in the afternoon. After successfully fighting for my two chits for these events, I had to go to the opposite end of the hotel on the second floor to pay for them. On the way, I passed the bank, stopped, and changed dollars to have rubles for payment. On to the cashier, who only took dollars, no rubles! Back down to Intourist for another fight to the head of the line. Received my ticket for the tour but was told to come back after lunch for the Hermitage ticket; it was not known which bus would handle the Hermitage tour.
A sizeable number of conferees were on the city tour. I Had a lengthy conversation with the Kabischs from Germany; met the Buckmasters from Los Angeles; became reacquainted with Allen Rogers from Oregon. The tour proved helpful. I now had a sense of the city and could strike out without the "helpful" services of lntourist.
Upon our return, I stopped to have a beer in the hotel where rubles were again refused. I'm beginning to wonder if one can spend rubles in Russia.
After lunch the Intourist counter was not so busy and a ticket for the Hermitage was quickly obtained. On to the bus to the foreigners' entrance where we didn't have to wait in line. Passed quickly through corridors of antiquities to the state room of Peter the Great. The Malachite Room. Columns, covered with gold leaf. On to the section built dy Catherine the Great. Then to paintings - de Vinci, Raphael, Titian, El Greco - and rooms of Dutch genre and landscape paintings.
One wag suggested that the organizing committee should have awarded a prize to the participant who could identify the greatest number of rugs in paintings. The Dutch genre paintings alone would have taken up the entire afternoon with that objective.
On to the French section for the Impressionists and 20th century paintings. The holdings were amazing.
Dr. and Mrs. Sabety and I opted to walk back to the hotel, so we had a bit more time to look. On our way out, we stopped at a darkened case. Mrs. Sabety tried to read the labels, and the attendant turned the case lights on. They revealed some 7th to 9th century post-Scythian textiles from an excavation in Daghestan. There was a full caftan, a cap, and other pieces with Han Dynasty patterns. We were permitted to take photos. In mentioning this to Carol Bier, she pointed out that one of the few places the caftan is published is in a Textile Museum Journal. The late afternoon walk back to the hotel showed a more alive city: people out for walks, lovers kissing on the banks of the Neva, and tour boats plying the river and canals.
Back at the hotel, there was grumbling by those up and about that the dining room does not open until 8:00 a.m. I began to suspect that all of these "problems" were really deliberately planned to give one something to talk about and fill the day.
9:20 Ceremonial opening of the Conference. Greetings from Boris Petrofsky, director of the State Hermitage, and from Diyarberkirly (Turkey), Ivanov (Hermitage), Pinner {England), and closing remarks by Petrofsky.
10:20 Opening of the exhibition "Modern Hand-made Tapestry."
The hotel exhibition hall lobby walls were covered by several large (24'x8') figural kilim-weave tapestries. One participant quizzically whispered to another, "Is this the exhibit?" Yeah, not exactly what this group expected. The talks began.
11:00 Jon thompson, UK, "Why was carpet weaving so important to the Turkmen and why was it so excellent?" Maybe I missed something getting my simultaneous translator working, but why as the opening speaker did Thompson give a "throw-away" talk?
11:25 M. Dzumaniyazova, USSR, "Some peculiarities and differences in ornamentation and composition of Igdyr, Shikh, and Arabatchi rugs of mid-19th to early 20th century." An interesting talk on types of weaving rarely seen and from the virtually unknown holdings of the Ashkabad Museum. Pinner, presiding as chair, is determined to enforce the 20 minute rule. Dzumaniyazova is silenced after 25 minutes.
11:55 P. Hoffmeister, Germany, "What are the original meanings of the forms on Turkmen ensis?" A paper which ended up with a speculation based on a Russian anthropologist's remark that a tree design in the vertical "cross" panel represented a female goddess. Sounded like the old "Birth Symbol" to me.
14:25 F. F Batari, Hungary, "Central Asian Carpets in Budapest Private Collections."
14:50 A. Magykaldi, Hungary, "Turkoman Juvals and Torbas in the Hungarian Private Collections."
An interesting and well presented set of talks and chance to see again many of the pieces seen at the Vienna I.C.O.C.
15:35 H. Sienknecht, Germany, "Development of Ornament on C-gul Carpets." A dandy rehash of ideas outlined originally by Thompson in Turkmen. The speaker when informed his time was up announced he would continue since the next speaker had cancelled out. Surprisingly, the chair permitted him to do so. He still didn't finish in time.
16:25 E. Salmanov, USSR, "Tribal and Cult Symbols on Central Asian Rugs." A presentation of ideas about how tamgas and other symbols were incorporated into designs by Turko-Mongol groups.
16:50 A. Dzikiev, USSR, "Turkoman Rugs, Carpets and Felts as a Source of Ethnic History." No slides, but an interesting presentation by a Turkoman of his views on the meaning of some Turkoman designs. Barely finished his paper.
The German Consulate came through with an automatic projector. The day was saved.
9:50 A. Gubayev, USSR, "Genesis of Some Types of Turkoman Ornaments." Reports on research in Turkmenia involving excavated pottery, shards, etc., and designs found thereon as sources of Turkoman design.
10:10 D. Zilper, USSR, "Carpet Collection of the State Museum of Arts of Uzbekistan." A very interesting collection of textiles, kelims, and rugs. Well presented.
10:55 H. Bohmer. Turkey, "Migration of Central Asian Carpet Designs to Anatolia." Dr. Bohmer was the first to use the dual projectors, and it was a definite improvement. A talk with design comparisons of Turkoman and Turkish rugs.
11:20 J. Powell, Turkey, "Yoruk Nomad Bags - Central Asian Influencers" A comparison of several designs on ala juvals and their reference to Central Asian sources. 11:45 C. Wyaux, Belgium, "Warp-patterned Weaves - A Suggested Central Asian Source for Mamluk Textiles." Some may have thought this paper was a bit far afield, but it was excellently presented and, by suggesting a greater use of flatweaves in the past, it was thought-provoking.
14:00 S. Azadi, Germany, "The Problem of Differentiating between Kurdish and Baluch Rugs." A good discussion of differences between two groups of rugs, hammered to silence before the end because of slide projector difficulties.
14:25 G. O'Bannon, USA, "Baluch Rugs - Dokhtar i Ghazi and Yacub Khani." Another paper bites the dust because of slide difficulties. This guy didn't have all of his slides in plastic frames.
14:50 W. Stanzer, Austria, "Baluch-type Rugs from the Kurds of Khorasan." Although hampered by some projector problems, everything started coming together in this one, and Stanzer finished by a nose.
16:25 E. Szoke, Hungary, "Questions about an East Turkestan Rug in Hungary."
16:50 J. Wouters, Belgium, "Important Progress in Natural Dye Analysis by Computerized HPLC." Some sighs were heard when Science reared its head. When Wouters ended, he seemed to be the hit of the day, as evidenced by the number of questions afterwards.
By the end of the second day, the meetings were better organized, the projectors were working more efficiently, and speakers were learning that Pinner would limit them to 20 minutes.
Elena Tsereva, curator for the Ethnographic Museum and organizer of the exhibition, was on hand to welcome the attendees. The exhibit contained pieces from several Russian museums. All of the major Turkoman tribes were represented, and most utilitarian types of weaving were included. The hall itself was well lit with natural light. The exhibit was arranged around groups of functional items such as kapunuks, khalyks and germetches for the door, juvals and torbas as storage bags, tentbands, and khorjins and square bags. There was one grouping displaying the various reds in Turkoman weaving, an interesting and novel concept. After two hours of photography (many illicit flashes here), touching, looking, and trying to absorb as much as possible, the group returned to the hotel for lunch. In the afternoon from 2:00 until 6:00 came the second major excursion: the trip to the Hermitage for the Pazyryk Room, the exhibited rugs and, we thought, the rug storage rooms. Dr. Ivanov was our main guide here, a real gentleman.
The sighting of this felt usually led to the first sighting of the rug - and another surprise. It is nothing like the published examples. The colors, texture, size, beauty: all different. In the books, the red is a rust, madder red; in reality, it is a maroonish, blue-red. The green is a mossy, lichen green and the blue is soft, light, and delicate. The short pile and velvety texture are totally unexpected. The delicacy of drawing of all pattern elements is pure finesse. This is no nomadic rug! The anticlimax to seeing the Pazyryk was an opportunity to actually feel a fragment and to know the quality of the wool, texture, and fineness.
After this the rest of the Hermitage holdings were viewed with somewhat indifferent eyes. I never got into the Hermitage storage room, although some did.
Wednesday evening was to take in the circus, opera, ballet, or dinner at a cooperative, e.g. private, restaurant.
9:20 A. Boralevi, Italy, "White Ground Asmalyks." An expansion and refinement of the classification of a specific group of asmalyks by Paul Mushak published in ORR Vol. 8, No.2.
9:45 W. Loges, Germany. A comparative approach to determining age relationships in Turkoman rugs based on pattern elements, colors, space, drawing, etc., botched by slide projector problems.
10:10 J. Thompson, UK, "A Group of Torbas and Their Ornaments." The foremost identifier of specific Turkoman tribal groups presented the kind of paper he doesn't like on a small group of kapunuks and torbas with a gul containing a uniquely drawn animal figure. Surprisingly, one of this very type was in Sotheby's/New York June 4 sale.
10:55 W. Muller, Germany, "Central Asian Animal Trappings. " Examples of the variety of trapping made by the Turkomans.
11:20 T. Sabahi, Italy, "An Outstanding Vaghireh from Turkestan." A very well presented and interesting talk on a single Beshire vaghireh with several unusual patterns.
14:00 D. Dodds, USA, "A Group of Epigraphic Monuments and Their Relationship to the 'Head-and- Shoulders' Carpet Design in Central Asian Rugs." A discussion of the possible interrelationship of stone grave markers as inspiration for these specific types of prayer rugs.
14:25 D. Milberg, USA, "Some Comments on the Turkoman Gol." At one time or another, every ethnic group in the Middle East has claimed the origins of rug weaving as its own. If I heard this correctly, it was suggested that the Turkoman gul was derived from ancient Jewish rabbinical garments. Should this paper get the Sam Gordon Award for most clever put-on in rug scholarship?
15:35 T. Khizgilova, USSR, "Ornamented Weavings of Mangyshlak Kazakhs." This dealt mainly with tentbands woven in the gajari method and used in various ways by the Kazakhs.
16:00 G. Vasilyeva, USSR, "Type of Turkoman Felts." Another nomadic product rarely discussed at such conferences.
16:50 L. Beresneva, USSR, "Karakalpak Items in the Collection of the State Museum of Art of Oriental Peoples, Moscow." A museum holdings talk with slides of many pieces of a rarely discussed group.
Things were moving along well by the end of the day. The slide projection went well, there were good questions and discussion. At the end of the session, Dr. Ivanov announced that the final conference dinner could not be held as planned. Val Arbab was at it again Thursday evening, making her suite available for use by Christie's and Hali for a reception. Anthony Thompson was the only auctioneer at the conference which was surprising. More people continued to show up for these fests and there is a real need for conferees to have a place to meet and socialize at the end of the day. I hope the San Francisco I.C.O.C. planners try to make accommodations for such groups. It is lamentable that in Vienna the only such opportunity was in the ORR suite. True to form, Val started asking how many people would sign up for 23 rubles each so that the conferees could sponsor a final banquet. If enough wanted to, she offered to make the arrangements.
9:20 P. Bichler, Austria, "East Turkestan Rugs from Officer Ma Chung-Yins." Mr. Bichler presented a "research" paper on a group of about 50 rugs which were woven especially for a Turko-Mongol general who briefly gained control of Sinjiang Province in the mid-1930s.
9:45 R. Chenciner, UK, "Old Maps of Central Asia from the Royal Geographic Society. " Scholarly tools are one of the things rug scholarship needs. Mr. Chenciner presented a group of maps which can be used in several ways to verify data. Was anyone listening?
10:10 Liu Gua Hua, Tong Wei Ming, China, "Carpets of Sing-Tsyang." An interesting paper on Sing-Tsyang rugs and how they served as the basis for the Beijing rug industry.
10:35 R. Wright, USA, "Western Travelers in Central Asia." The only paper delivered by a Westerner in Russian, this paper was beautifully illustrated with visual documentation of rugs frozen in moments of unquestionable time. The pluses and minuses of how to use travelers' accounts were explicitly enumerated.
11:40 A. Abbasov, USSR, "Some Comments to the History of Carpet Trade in Central Asia - Export via Transcaucasus." No one ever said an economist could be interesting, but the use of export-import aspects of the Dismal Science showed that such figures are data which need to be considered in any discussion of rug weavings.
11:45 A. Rautenstengel, Germany, "A Rare Group of Turkoman Rugs Continued." Ms. Rautenstengel is the penultimate of technical data recorders; she studies possibly the smallest group of known Turkoman weavings. This paper dealt with related torbas and juvals. Whereas most lecturers struggled to present 20-40 slides, she succeeded in illuminating over 100 examples! The translator of this paper should get the Lenin Prize for having stayed the course in the English translation.
It was announced that Val's efforts for a dinner were moving along and that anyone who had not signed up should do so during the lunch break.
14:00 M. Churlu, USSR, "Modern Tendencies in Handmade Carpetweaving." This talk concerned present weaving at the village and home level among the Khirghiz of Central Asia.
14:25 A. Teselkin, USSR, "Modern Handmade Turkoman Carpetweaving." This concerned the type of weaving which is and has been occurring in Turkoman homes. Not all Turkoman weaving is organized in factories.
it was announced that plans for a final conference dinner were successful, and it would be held at 8:00 p.m.
16:00 Closing of the Conference.
16:30 Visit to the State Museum of Ethnography of the Peoples of the USSR. Another visit that everyone had been awaiting, this trip took us to the museum with the largest rug holdings, including those of Bogolubov and Dudin as well as all other types of related material. Each gallery was devoted to different ethnic groups or regions, e.g., Turkomans, Kazakhs, Azerbaijan, Armenians, Georgian, etc. The displays were excellent and there were galleries in which the exhibits change.
An apoplectic Robert Pinner, threatening photoflash-taking conferees with closure of the rug exhibition if they did not cease and desist;
A group of conferees and Russians dancing the horah at the conference dinner;
The impossibility of spending rubles in Leningrad;
Getting to know Russian colleagues with whom a continuing correspondence and communication is possible.>P>
