The Leigh Marsh Collection | Antique Turkmen and Oriental Rugs | Fine Art

Live Gallery Auction: Sunday, June 27, 11AM ET

Public Exhibition: June 23-26, 10am – 5pm
Exhibition Reception: Saturday, June 26, 1pm – 4pm. Informal Gallery Talk, 1pm: Dennis Dodds, Secretary General of the International Conference on Oriental Carpets (ICOC).

Also accepting phone and absentee bids.

Browse the Auction Catalog and Bid Live on these Portals:

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Absentee Bid Form
 | Telephone Bid Form | Terms and Conditions (PDF)

Leigh Marsh

Antique tribal and village rugs and trappings have been avidly collected and studied for the better part of a century; the more they were understood, the more they were appreciated, and there is no doubt they will continue to be coveted. New and experienced collectors alike will have an opportunity here to intelligently enhance their inventories, while more casual buyers will be able to find exemplary weavings in a wide price range, all carrying the Marsh provenance. Those fortunate enough to have realized that collecting can in itself be a creative endeavor will do well to discover Leigh’s motives: He was an enthusiastic collector of the first magnitude who delighted in erudite discussions regarding virtually every aspect of rustic weaving, weavers and their cultures. He met or knew most of the major rug scholars and dealers, and reveled in the festive world of auctions, conferences and parties where co-enthusiasts were likely to be. It was in this spirit that he created a thoughtfully curated collection that was much more than the sum of its parts. Older collectors say with some veracity that today, good pieces are rare to the market, not like a generation or two ago when astute collectors snapped up the most significant pieces and kept them. Leigh, however, generously availed his collection for exhibitions and publications, and his pieces are to be found throughout the existing literature. Many previously exhibited and published examples are in the present sale. The Marsh collection fits comfortably among the few most important sales of Turkmen collections of the past generation, and it is likely that most pieces will remain with their new owners for a long time; each will forever carry documentation of having been part of this extraordinary sale.