ORIENTAL RUGS FROM AMERICAN ESTATES | 71

Live Showroom Auction: Tuesday, January 28, 2025, 11AM EST
Public Exhibition: January 26-27, 11AM-4PM
Join Us! Opening Exhibition Reception & Refreshments,
Sunday, January 26, Noon to 4PM

428 LOTS, NO RESERVES

 

James Douglas was a serious and thoughtful collector of Baluch and other Persian tribal and village rugs—in the most positive sense of those terms. He had a natural proclivity for collecting; before his interest in rugs, he had amassed a substantial collection of fly-fishing rods, the sale of which helped fund his new passion for rugs.

Initially, his focus was on “Baluch” rugs, but his analytical mindset soon led him to critically differentiate between the various sub-divisions within that category. He became the Baluch collecting world’s most dedicated collector of “Arab” Baluch rugs, seeking both outstanding examples of well-known types and highly atypical pieces. Examples of each are included here. He also explored other subsets of the “Baluch” group, such as symmetrically knotted rugs, rugs with red grounds, and—rare among American collectors—flatwoven pieces ranging from small personal bags to substantial floor coverings. His wide-ranging interest in Baluch rugs was represented in the exhibition he curated for the 2002 American Conference on Oriental Rugs in Indianapolis, much of which was later published in Inclusively Baluch, about a decade later.

As his collecting journey continued, his interests expanded. While he remained focused on pieces woven for local use rather than export, he developed an appreciation for the weavings—particularly bags—of tribal groups in Southwest Iran. Consistent with his approach in other areas of rug collecting, he sought out pieces with superior wool quality and those less commonly seen in the West. The final major chapter of his collecting was dedicated to rugs from the Varamin Plain. He meticulously assembled a diverse collection of Varamin-area weavings, always with an eye for quality and unusual variations.

We invite you to enjoy this selection of pieces from his collection. As one of his fellow collectors aptly remarked, “James’s pieces always had something”—whether it was superior wool quality, an uncommon detail, a weaver’s idiosyncrasy, or simply their rarity.

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