A highpoint of my interest in war rugs was attending the opening of Max Allen’s collection of war rugs at Canada’s Textile Museum. Max and everyone at the Textile Museum have developed an excellent war rug database. It has structural data, very good descriptions, and excellent photographs. Bravo!

Toronto is a beautiful and interesting town. I visited a well styled and eclectic independent bookstore called The Monkey’s Paw.

Commencing our tour, Max commended this rug as best of all:

The contenders for my favorite are:

This, truly gorgeous rug, is most historically important:

I talked to Tim and Max about my theory of the “Feedback Loop” specifically regarding this rug:

this group of rugs:

and these Mas’ud rugs:

Max’s guided Tim and me through the galleries. His analysis was animated and very well informed. Succinctly, Max focused on our lack of specific answers to four questions: Who made the rugs? Where were they made? When were they made? What do they mean?

More posts about this show soon…..