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2024/2025
The Garden is a Rug / The Rug is a Garden
Speaker: Sarah Molina, Hajji Baba Club Research Fellow
Book of Textiles: The Karun Thakar Collection
Speaker: Stephen Ellcock
Members Only Tour to Washington DC
Speaker: Saturday May 3 to Sunday May 4, 2025
Private Tour of the Department of Textile Conservation at the MET with Janina Poskrobko
Speaker: Janina Poskrobko
Visit to the Suzani Collection of Jay Schippers
Speaker: Jay Schippers
The Hidden History of Tibetan Rugs
Speaker: Felix Elwert
Rare Anatolian Kilims: Selections from Private Collectors
Speaker: Ziya Bozoglu
Looking at ‘Received Wisdom’ about Oriental Carpets
Speaker: Walter Denny
The Provenance of Desire
Speaker: Peter D'Ascoli
On Birds and Bektashis: Two Tribal Animal Rugs of Ḳaramān, 1450-1550
Speaker: Ahmet Balkan
2023/2024
Annual Hajji Baba Club Picnic
Speaker: Show & Tell
Weaving Abstraction in Ancient and Modern Art – Metropolitan Museum of Art
Speaker: Private Tour
To Sikh or not to Sikh: In Defense of the Sikh Kashmir Shawl – Annual Meeting
Speaker: Frank Ames
Artistry and Power on Display: Ceremonial Ndop Cloths of the Cameroon Grassfields
Speaker: Janet Marion Purdy, PhD, Associate Curator of Textiles at the Art Institute of Chicago
The (Epistemological) Warp and Weft of Persian Rugs: How Knowledge is Produced in Western Art History
Speaker: Sophia Sacal
The Vagireh: A Rug Less Ordinary
Speaker: Hadi Maktabi
Katonah Museum of Art – “Stories of Syria’s Textiles: Art and Heritage across Two Millennia
Speaker: Deniz Beyazit and Blair Fowlkes Childs
Field Trip – Comfort Zone: Primal Rugs: Origins, Function and Art – Double Knot Gallery in Tribeca
Speaker: Murat Kupcu
Truly Tribal in South Persian Weavings
Speaker: Jim Opie
Trip to Ratti Center – Syria’s Fame of Silk
Speaker: Dr. Deniz Beyazit & Eva Labson
The Safavid Carpet Fragments from the Shrine of Shah Neʿmatullah Vali
Speaker: Margaret Squires, 2022-2023 HBC Research Fellow
Sea Change: Ottoman Textiles From 1400-1800
Speaker: Amanda Phillips
Collecting and Decorating: A Personal Journey in Textile Design
Speaker: Nathalie Farman-Farma
2022/2023
Annual Meeting Plus Show and Tell
American Benefactresses of European Tapestry: Art Philanthropy Stateside Circa 1900
Speaker: Charissa Bremer-David
Members Only Tour to Washington DC
Speaker: Members Only
Silk and Wool: Crosscurrent Influences in Turkish Rugs and Textiles
Speaker: Gerard Paquin
Maghreb Mastery
Speaker: Gebhart Blazek
Pull of the Thread: Textile Travels of a Generation
Speaker: Sheila Fruman
Brocades, Carpets and Silk Fabrics: Painted Textiles in 18th and 19th century Private Homes in Damascus
Speaker: Anke Scharrahs
Kravet Archives Tour in Woodbury, Long Island
Speaker: Members Only
Carpet and Textile Photography at Art Lens Photography
Speaker: Simon Ferenc Toth
A Collector’s Views on the Repair/Restoration/Conservation/Doing Nothing Continuum.
Speaker: Mike Tschebull
Fellowship Grantee Report – Motifs of Islamic Cosmology on the Prayer Rug – Sajjada
Speaker: Fatima Zutic
2021/2022
Cartier and Islamic Art: In Search of Modernity
Speaker: Dr. Heather Ecker
From Buteh to Paisley: The Story of a Global Icon
Speaker: Augusta de Gunzbourg
Archetypes, Aesthetics and Agency: Adat Textiles of Early Indonesian Cultures
Speaker: Thomas Murray
Central Asian Suzani: Understanding the Tradition and Attribution of Silk Dowry Embroideries
Speaker: Ali Istalifi
Mrs. Beattie and Mr. Getty: A Carpet Controversy
Speaker: Dr. Dorothy Armstrong
Dr. Mariachiara Gasparini: From Wool to Silk and Back: Development and Evolution of the Eurasian Roundel Motif
Speaker: Dr. Mariachiara Gasparini
The Blueberry Pie Carpet: A Morris Carpet at Home in Chicago
Speaker: Melinda Watt
Lawrence Kearney on the greatest hits of Skinners
Speaker: Lawrence Kearney
Far Flung Urban Moroccan and Greek Embroideries: Similarities and Differences
Speaker: Yosi Barzilai
2020/2021
2020/2021 Annual Meeting and Show and Tell
Speaker: Show and Tell
Safavid Dynastic Vision: Shah Tahmasp’s Commission of the Ardabil Carpets
Speaker: Moya Carey
Stefano Bardini and the International Carpet Trade at the End of the 19th century
Speaker: Alberto Boralevi
Anamnesis : Stories Told In Rugs
Speaker: Nazanin Sadr Azodi
Hidden in Plain Sight : A System of Markings in Oriental Rugs
Speaker: Shiv Sikri
Textile Art – A Conversation about Aesthetics
Speaker: Tom Cole
The Cloth that Changed the World
Speaker: Sarah Fee
Ikat & Ikat Velvet in Uzbekistan from a Weaver’s Point of View
Speaker: Barbara Pickett
Mysteries of Cairo’s Magnificent Mamluk Carpets
Speaker: Rosamund Mack
Swedish Folk Weavings for Oriental Rug Lovers
Speaker: Wendel Swan
2019/2020
From Afghans to Zieglers: The Forgotten Years of Persian Carpets 1722 – 1872
Speaker: Hadi Maktabi
First Online Meeting: Kurdish Bags and Rugs
Speaker: Jeff Berry
Hidden in Plain Sight: A System of Markings in Oriental Rugs
Speaker: Sikri Shiv
Traditional Textiles of Japan – The Thomas Murray Collection
Speaker: Thomas Murray
Tibetan Rugs: Ancient Problems, Innovative Solutions
Speaker: Chris Buckley
Qarajeh to Quba
Speaker: Mike Tschebull
Piecing together the Past: The Little-known Story of America’s First Tapestry Ateliers
Speaker: Alice Zrebiec
Pattern, Process, Ritual: Distinguishing Uyghur Felt Making In Northwest China
Speaker: Chris Martens
Tibetan Golden Triangle: An in Depth Look at a Group of Rugs in a Collection in Boston
Speaker: Alberto Levi
Festivals, Fairs and Rituals: Textiles, Costumes and Carpets of the Eastern Grasslands of Tibet
Speaker: Cheri Hunter
2018/2019
Annual Summer Picnic
Annual Meeting & Show and Tell of Turkmen Trappings
Speaker: Kurt Munkacsi
Rags, Riches, and Patchwork: The Sacred and Secular Aspects of Buddhist Ritual Garments in Japan
Speaker: Jacquie Atkins
Philadelphia Trip
Turks, Textiles, Transylvania! The Royal and the Religious
Speaker: Joyce Corbett
Hats: Selected Hats of the Silk Road
Speaker: Roger Pratt
Sacred Surfaces: Carpets, Coverings and Mesas in the Colonial Andes
Speaker: Elena Phipps
Purple Reign: The History of an Extraordinary Color
Speaker: Deborah Kraak
Nomadic Jajims: Transcaucasian/Azarbayjani and Lur, Qashqa’i and Chahar Mahal examples
Speaker: Mike Tschebull
Turks, Textiles, Transylvania! The Royal and the Religious
Speaker: Joyce Corbett
From the Desert to the City: The Journey of Late Ancient Textiles
Speaker: Warren Woodfin
Framing the Islamic Prayer Rug: Image, Symbolism and Function
Speaker: Jeff Spurr
Wagner Garden Carpet – Metropolitan Museum
Speaker: Sheila R. Canby
Haiku in Color Kilims of Anatolia
Speaker: Sumru Krody
2017/2018
Annual Summer Picnic
Annual Business Meeting
Indian Textiles
Speaker: Jeevak Parpia and Banoo Parpia
Unrolling Sanctuary
Speaker: Jackie von Treskow, Program Director at the For-Site Foundation in San Francisco
Hamadan Weavings
Speaker: A.E. "Tad" Runge
Russian Double-Faced Kashmir Style Shawls
Speaker: Maleyne Syracuse
Lampung Imagery Textile Iconography of Sumatra
Speaker: Thomas Murray
12th and 13th Century Textile Finds at the Chungul Kurgan
Speaker: Warren T. Woodfin
Recent Studies on the ‘Transylvanian’ Group
Speaker: Stefano Ionescu
Toronto Tour
Reconstructing Soft Furnishings in Medieval Ethiopian Rock-Cut Churches
Speaker: Mikael Muehlbauer
Portable Storage: Tribal Weavings from the Collection of William and Inger Ginsberg
Speaker: Deniz Beyazit
Fredrik R. Martin, the Missing Man
Speaker: Thomas Farnham
2016/2017
Annual Summer Picnic
Annual Business Meeting and Old Fashioned Show & Tell
Qashqa’i Warp-Faced Weavings
Speaker: Fred Mushkat
Brooklyn Museum
Exploring Tibetan Weavings
Speaker: Nicholas Wright
Carpets for Kings: Six Masterpieces of Iranian Weaving
Speaker: Sheila Canby
All day visit to Winterthur Museum in Winterthur, Delaware
Carpathian Echoes: Textile Materials and Technology in the Carpathian Mountains of Romania and Ukraine
Speaker: Florica Zaharia
Colors of the Oasis: 19th Century Central Asian Textiles and Their Modern Revival
Speaker: Bruce Baganz
Peter Pap Booth Talk
Speaker: Peter Pap
Re-envisioning Japan: Meiji Fine Art Textiles
Speaker: John Vollmer
The Evolution of a Collector: George Hewitt Myers
Speaker: Sheridan Collins
Olana: The Home of Painter Frederic Edwin Church
An Attempt To Group the Origin of Some Central Anatolian Carpets Made Between 1500-1650
Speaker: Michael Franses
Creating New Carpets Using Ancient Techniques
Speaker: Bahram Shabahang
2015/2016
Annual Summer Picnic
Annual Club Meeting & Members’ Show & Tell
African Textiles and Dress: Highlights from the Newark Museum Collection
Speaker: Dr. Christa Clarke
James F. Ballard Collection of Oriental Rugs
Speaker: Walter Denny
Field Trip to the Newark Museum
Mary Hunt Kahlenberg
Speaker: Richard Tuttle
Border Crossings: Three 19th Century Iranian Artists
Speaker: Layla Diba
The Splendor of Persian Pictorial Carpets and the Stories They Tell
Speaker: Judge Jeffrey G. Berry
Early Inscribed Textiles from the Textile Museum,
Conspicuous Display of Authority
Speaker: Sumru Krody
Rug Conservation
Speaker: Richard Newman
Symbols of Power: Luxury Textiles from Islamic Lands
Speaker: Louise Mackie
Preview of Sotheby’s Auction
“Carpets and Textiles from Distinguished Collections”
Speaker: Mary Jo Otsea
2014/2015
The Hajji Baba Club Annual Picnic
Art Deco Hooked Rugs: Modernist Folk Art
Speaker: Lawrence Kearney
Reassembling a Persian Beauty & How To Kill a Moth – Tips and Tricks To Preserve Your Treasures
Speaker: Anna Beselin
Exotic Encounters – Reading Two 18th Century Chintzes
Speaker: John Guy
Back to The Future – Reconstruction of Anatolian Carpets From Renaissance Paintings
Speaker: Ali Riza Tuna
Where Does the Baluch Camel Ground Tree of Life Design Come From?
Speaker: DeWitt Mallary
SECRETS AND LI: Layers of Mystery in Dragon Tapestries from Hainan, China
Speaker: Lee J. Chinalai
The Oriental Carpet as “Islamic Art”
Speaker: Wendel Swan
The 1933 Exhibition of “Old Spanish Rugs” in Madrid: Carpets, Collectors, and Dealers
Speaker: Heather Ecker
Uncle Henry and Lord Duveen’s Carpets
Speaker: Thomas J. Farnham
2013/2014
Annual Summer Picnic
Myth & Design
Speaker: Thomas Cole
Textile Crafts from Western India
Speaker: Roger and Claire Pratt
Continuing Traditions
Speaker: Gail Martin
Sogdian Traders & Silk Textiles
Speaker: Carlo Christi
Ottoman Rugs & Romanian Folk Kilims
Speaker: Stefano Ionescu
Early Rugs from the Nazmiyal Collection
Unraveling Identity: Our Textiles, Our Stories
Speaker: Lee Talbot
City Court and Workshop Inspired Carpets
Anatolian Kilims and Their History
Speaker: Vedat Karadag
Imperial Portraits and Costume from Ancient Assyria to Qajar Iran As Ritual Performance
Speaker: Ira Spar
19th c. Village and Tribal Rugs
The Dragon Chasing the Horse – Or Was it the Other Way Around?
Speaker: Koos de Jong
An Overview of Antique Rugs
Ottoman Influences on Islamic Batik from Indonesia, A Context of Understanding
Speaker: Thomas Murray
Artist-Designed Rugs by Parviz Tanavoli, Iran’s Formost Sculptor
Speaker: Parviz Tanavoli
2012/2013
The Hajji Baba Club Annual Picnic
Annual Meeting & Show and Tell
Kang Collection and Sotheby’s NYC
Ratti Center – Metropolitan Museum of Art
Off the Beaten Path
Speaker: Jeff Spurr
A Sultan’s Present – the Robe of Honor in the Museum of Islamic Art, Berlin
Speaker: Gisela Helmecke
Celestial Geometry as a Soul Carrier to The Other World
Speaker: Eberhart Herrmann
Woven Transport and Storage Bags
Speaker: Raoul Tschebull (Mike)
The Steps of the Dragon
Speaker: Denise Cain
Carpets and the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Recent Past and Long-term Future
Speaker: Walter Denny
Carpets of Gold and Silk
Speaker: Dan Walker
Fifty Years of Collecting
Speaker: Mae Festa
Hispanic Society Field Trip
Speaker: Sally Sherrill
Qaraqalpaqs Of The Aral Delta
Speaker: David and Sue Richardson
2011/2012
Central Asian Ikat Coats in the Ashmolean Museum
Speaker: Ruth Barnes
Annual Meeting & Dinner
New York’s Great Carpet Collectors – Marquand to McMullan
Speaker: Professor Thomas Farnham
Islamic Carpets and Textiles for the ALTICALSA Galleries at The MET: Conservation and Display
Speaker: Florica Zaharia
The Origin Of Piled Weaving
Speaker: Elena Tsareva
Aroma of Romance in Middle Eastern Art
Speaker: Shelia Canby
Turkmen Engsi
Speaker: Kurt Munkacsi
Rugs are All About Color! But What Does That Mean?
Speaker: Wendel Swan
Sothebys Auction Preview
Speaker: Mary Jo Otsea
Reciprocal Trefoil Border in East Turkestan and Elsewhere
Speaker: Hans Koenig
Late Mamluk Carpets: Some New Observations
Speaker: Dr. Jon Thompson
2010/2011
Baluch
Speaker: DeWitt Mallory
Mae Festa: My First Forty Years of Collecting
Speaker: Jeff Spurr
Textile Design Influences in Turkish Rugs
Speaker: Gerard Paquin
Fez & Kilims
Speaker: Peter Bichler
Cochineal
Speaker: Elena Phipps
Topkapi Textiles
Speaker: Paul Hepworth
Turkish Rugs
Speaker: Stefano Ionescu
Surprise Topic
Speaker: Michael Franses
Re-opening of the Islamic Galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Speaker: Navina Haidar
2009/2010
Japanese Textiles at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Speaker: Joyce Denney
Textiles as Art – Textiles as Artifacts
Speaker: Gail Martin
The Orientalists: Oriental Carpets in 19th Century European and American Paintings
Speaker: Walter Denny
The Marvelous Reality of Peru
Speaker: James Reid
The Textiles of Kyrgyzstan
Speaker: Eileen Anne Malloy
Shaped Indian Carpets of the 17th Century
Speaker: Daniel Walker
Color as a Tool to Identify Anatolian Carpets
Speaker: Samy Rabinovic
Beyond Babylon: Art, Trade, Costume and Diplomacy in The Second Millennium B.C.E.
Speaker: Ira Spar
2008/2009
Anatolian Yastiks: Small Wonders
Speaker: Dennis Dodds
Oriental Rug Fakes and Copies: Teodor Tuduc
Speaker: Alberto Boralevi
Contemporary View of Old Caucasian Village Rugs
Speaker: Raoul “Mike” Tschebull
Tribal Weavings: Symbolism and Meaning through the Eyes of the Creator
Speaker: Peter Davies
Qing Imperial Robes in the Palace Museum Collection
Speaker: John Vollmer
Dragon & Lattice Carpets of the 17th & 18th Centuries
Speaker: Paul Ramsey
The Three Ballard Collections
Speaker: Walter Denny
17th Century Mughal Style and It’s European Influences
Speaker: Frank Ames