Oriental Rugs and Carpets; A Comprehensive Study

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1931. First Printing [Stated] [Scribner's "A" present]. Hardcover. Good. xxii, [2], 303, [1] pages. footnotes. Maps (all present). Illustrations (some in color--all present). Index. Inscription on fep signed and dated by Dilley. Color frontis. Format is approximately 8.5 inches by 11.25 inches. Cover has noticeable wear and soiling. Arthur Urbane Dilley was born on August 23, 1873 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He was an American writer, lecturer and adviser on Oriental rugs. Bachelor of Arts, Harvard, 1897, A.M., 1899. Master, Taft School, Watertown, Connecticut, 1899-1903. Oriental rug merchant, Boston, 1903-1913, New York City in 1914. Lecturer at art museums and schools, universities, clubs from 1903. An oriental rug is a heavy textile, made for a wide variety of utilitarian and symbolic purpose, produced in "Oriental countries" for home use, local sale, and export. Oriental carpets can be pile woven or flat woven without pile, using various materials such as silk, wool, and cotton. Examples range in size from pillow to large, room-sized carpets, and include carrier bags, floor coverings, decorations for animals, Islamic prayer rugs (sajjadah), Jewish Torah ark covers (parochet), and Christian altar covers. Since the High Middle Ages, oriental rugs have been an integral part of their cultures of origin, as well as of the European and the North American culture. Geographically, oriental rugs are made in an area referred to as the "Rug Belt", which stretches from Morocco across North Africa, the Middle East, and into Central Asia and northern India. Since many of these countries lie in an area which today is referred to as the Islamic world, oriental rugs are often also called "Islamic Carpets", and the term "oriental rug" is used mainly for convenience. In 2010, the "traditional skills of carpet weaving" in the Iranian town of Kashan, and the "traditional art of Azerbaijani carpet weaving" were placed on the UNESCO Cultural Heritage Lists.