We invite you to come by Material Culture all of this week for our special exhibition preview of our May 26 auction, “Antique Textiles, Carpets, and Ethnographic Arts.” Our exhibition galleries, nearly 20,000 square feet of naturally-lit space, are housed under the same roof as Material Culture’s retail space. All of the items from the exhibitions 384 lots will be on view from 10 AM -6 PM, every day of the week.
This auction offers many museum-quality lots, and the exhibition is a spectacular opportunity to view these rare objects, free and open to the public. Eighty-seven of the lots come from the Bill Liske Collection of Antique Tibetan Textiles, Carpets and Artifacts, all exquisite examples of Himalayan artistry, with textiles as old as the 10th – 13th centuries. The diverse mix of other exceptional items include an 18th century Ottoman silk embroidery in excellent condition, a 17th century Spanish Alcaraz carpet, a Ming period (1368-1644) carved wood Buddha, a woven Pre-Columbian band from Peru, a Dharmapala (Wrathful Deity) Dance Mask embellished in coral from Mongolia, early Christian textiles dating to the 16th century or earlier, a rare 19th century Shah-Savan horse cover from Azerbaijan, and a group of 16th-early 20th century Ottoman, Persian, European and north African textiles. The auction also features a large selection of collectable and decorative 19th century Caucasian, Persian, Turkish and Central Asian carpets, and a rich array of carpets, textiles, masks, statues, and garments from literally all over the world.
For those not able to visit the exhibition gallery in person, a full catalogue is also available online, as a downloadable .pdf file, and on liveauctioneers.com, which offers live online bidding.
Guests listen to Bill Liske discuss his collection.
Guests at the exhibition opening.