Tag Archives: European tapestry

Happy Thanksgiving, and Black Friday Deals!

From all of us here at Persian Gallery New York, we wish you and yours a Happy Thanksgiving!  Of course, as Thanksgiving ends (or even before!), Black Friday begins, with shoppers getting major discounts on all types of products both in store and online.  We are proud to announce that we now have more items than ever before on sale, and available for purchase online, through the following portals:

PGNY on 1st Dibs:

https://www.1stdibs.com/dealers/persian-gallery-new-york

Currently on sale at 1st Dibs, we have a number of vintage decorative pillows, a variety of small size and room size antique oriental rugs and decorative carpets, many antique and period tapestries, and numerous other rugs and textiles in larger sizes.  Shopping cart available for immediate purchase, and some of the discounts have to be seen to be believed!

PGNY on One Kings Lane:

https://www.onekingslane.com/shop/pgny

Currently on sale on One Kings Lane is a unique pair of vintage decorative tapestry pillows, available with shopping cart for immediate purchase, at a price that’s almost too low to print!

The PGNY Outlet:

http://www.pgny.com/outlet

Our own hand-picked selection of antique, semi-antique, and vintage rugs, runners, textiles, and more, available in store with outrageous discounts!  Browse through the selection online, then contact us by e-mail or phone for availability, and to set up an in store viewing, or let us arrange shipping directly to you!

Check these three bargain hunter’s oases now, and check back daily for new additions and discounts!  Also, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus and more for daily alerts as to what’s on sale, and where, by connecting with us on social media via our links page!

Happy thanksgiving, and have a safe, healthy, and happy Black Friday!  Remember that the best selection of antique decorative carpets, old oriental rugs, period tapestries, and vintage pillows is available with extreme discounts, just a few clicks away!  Happy shopping!

 

Antique Tapestries with Bathing Women, and the Myth of Callisto

In an article featured in the New York Times‘ Art section this past week, the writer details an art exhibition currently taking place in the Musee Marmottan Monet in Paris, entitled “La Toilette: The Birth of Privacy.”  The exhibition focuses on the way women’s bathing and toileting rituals have been historically depicted in classical European works of art, and what that reflects about the progression from bathing having been done public to bathing being done in private.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/23/arts/design/la-toilette-art-show-explores-womens-bathing-rituals-through-history.html?_r=0

The exhibition displays numerous works of art, including many antique tapestries, like this one:

Paris Art Exhibit Tapestry

The exhibition shows how, lacking the modern convenience of indoor plumbing and instant access to water, bathing was something done very seldom, and when done, was done only by the wealthy.  When wealthy women bathed, they were in the company of several attendants and/or ladies in waiting, making what we think of now as a most private of grooming acts a rather communal or public event, and one in which the form of the bathing female was exposed to the eyes of all those around her.  No matter how banal a ritual bathing can be, one can surely see the undercurrent of eroticism and voyeurism in such communal baths of the otherwise hard to access female elite.

This same undercurrent of eroticism and voyeurism can be detected in many classic tales from Greco-Roman mythology, and in particular, the myths chronicled in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.  In many of Ovid’s tales, a female figure pursued by a god or a satyr is transformed into a different form, often involving her contact with or pursuit through a body of water.

Case in point, let’s take a look at the myth of Callisto.  Callisto was one of the female attendants of the goddess of the hunt, Diana (aka- Artemis).  Diana and her attendants would regularly go on hunts of wild animals, and after their hunts, they would all bathe together communally in a nearby stream.  Callisto was one of Diana’s most loyal attendants, and was renowned for her vows of chastity.  As the story goes, Zeus, the king of all the Greco-Roman gods, and father to Diana, was renowned for his wanderlust, and was constantly chasing different women, both goddesses and mortals.  In this myth, Zeus seduces Callisto, and they have a torrid affair.  Soon thereafter, Diana learns of Callisto’s betrayal of her vow of chastity, committed with Diana’s father, Zeus.  She is furious, and after a hunt one day, Callisto’s shame is exposed during the communal bath.

This exact moment is captured in one of our antique tapestries:

http://www.pgny.com/item26032

26032 (pro)

In the moment that is depicted in this tapestry, we see Diana and the other attendants and nymphs exposing the shame of Callisto, not only in the sense of revealing the sordid details of her affair, but also in the physical sense of pointing out and shaming Callisto’s nude form in the midst of what was until then a sorority’s communal bath.  We, the viewers, almost become complicit in the shaming, and we see again the undercurrent of eroticism and voyeurism that is chronicled in the aforementioned exhibit in Paris.

The myth goes on, of course, and Callisto is metamorphosed into a bear by Zeus in a vain attempt to hide away his misdeed from his furious wife, Hera.  Diana, being the huntress, ends up killing the she-bear Callisto during a subsequent hunt, and whether intentionally or unintentionally, slays her former confidante, despite Zeus’ attempts to conceal their affair.  Zeus metamorphoses the dead she-bear Callisto again, sending her into the heavens by transforming her into the constellation Ursa Major, ie- The Great Bear.

What we can take away from this is that the depiction of the bathing female, and the underlying prurience that goes along with it, was not limited to artistic renderings of privileged females in mid-millennium Europe, but is deeply rooted in story-telling that dates back to Ancient Greece.  Concomitant with the renderings of the bathing female is the voyeuristic undercurrent we’ve discussed in this blog post, which can be seen from many different angles and points of view, but also must be seen to exist.

The lovely antique Franco-Flemish tapestry displayed above is an exquisite example of this, and is now available for sale online for the very first time.  You can bring this piece of history home today via Persian Gallery New York‘s store at First Dibs!

https://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/wall-decorations/tapestry/antique-18th-century-franco-flemish-mythological-tapestry/id-f_2572812/

Putting the New in New Year

py New Year 2015!  Hmmm, how many days into the new year can one still say Happy New Year?  Social etiquette aside, there’s a lot of new in the new year here at Persian Gallery New York!

If you’ve browsed through rug inventory the website recently, you may have noticed the recent addition of a category of New Rugs added to our rug searches!  For the past 40+ years, Persian Gallery New York has focused on providing only the best antique oriental rugs and vintage decorative carpets to the trade, but has never forayed into the ever-expanding world of new rugs.  Now in 2015, PGNY has finally thrown its proverbial hat into the ring of new rugs, and has added a fully searchable category of over 150 unique new rugs to this website, available in a variety of sizes and styles.

Using the left-hand navigation menu, you can browse either exclusively for antique rugs, or just for new rugs.  To consider both antique and new rug options, you can search using the different size categories listed at left, or do a custom search using the Advanced Search tab at the top of the page.  Whichever way you approach it, we are sure you will find an amazing assortment of unique and exciting rugs, from oversize to scatter size, and from wide gallery sizes to narrow runners.

Take a look at the New Rugs section, and browse through the huge array of oversize new rug options listed there.  It’s an eye-popping collection of palace size pieces, and you can view it in detailed close-up views from the comfort of your computer, tablet, or smart phone.

There’s more where that came from, too, as we have added dozens of previously unseen antique rugs to the website, and are in the process of adding many more.

Check the website frequently to catch all the latest offerings as they’re added, and give us your feedback to let us know what you think!  Wishing you all a safe, happy, healthy 2015, and we look forward to helping you find the perfect antique (or new!) rugs for your flooring needs!

Link

New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art is currently holding a major exhibit of antique European tapestries, its third in the last decade.  This exhibit showcases the majestic beauty of the antique tapestry, an art form that in Renaissance Europe was even more prestigious than paintings, which can be argued as being contemporary society’s most highly valued form of two-dimensional art.

The antique tapestry (or period tapestry, as those in the trade call them) is a dazzling art form that marries the intense hand-weaving required for making oriental carpets with the subtle rendering required to delineate faces, moods, shade, and other complex artistic motifs usually associated with painting.  Tapestries were originally used in the castles of Europe’s royalty and the wealthy, both as decorative art and status symbols, but more pragmatically, also as wall coverings to keep the cold out.  Fiberglass insulation wasn’t quite invented yet, so their walls were pretty drafty!

Some of the larger tapestries, including the ones on display in the Met’s exhibit, were made by master weavers, and major artists from other disciplines (ie- Peter Paul Rubens) were also renowned for their magnificent tapestries.  The tapestries would be comprised of wool, silk, silver, gold, and other metallic threads, making them expensive to weave, especially given the difficulty of obtaining and manipulating the materials.  Larger pieces could take years to weave, and were financed by either royalty or by the dukes and lords of the land.

In modern times, tapestries still have prestige, and still have a niche audience, especially in Europe, but in the U.S., it can be argued that they are under-valued and under-appreciated.  The relative prices at auction for paintings as opposed to tapestries is astronomically higher, and antique tapestries get highlighted in museum exhibits only on occasion, as opposed to regularly.  Still and all, as collectors and purveyors of fine period tapestries, we are happy to see this wonderful art form get the exposure and coverage it deserves, and hope the trend increases as time goes on!

For more information about the exhibit at the Met, check out this article from today’s New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/24/arts/design/grand-design-showcases-pieter-coecke-tapestries-at-the-met.html?emc=edit_th_20141024&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=35177973&_r=0

 

Feedback on the New Site, & Happy Holidays from PGNY.com!

Has it already been two weeks??  Where did the time go?!?  We relaunched PGNY.com two weeks ago on Monday, September 8th, at the beginning of the annual New York area rug industry extravaganza, Metro Market Week, and can’t believe it’s already been two weeks since the relaunch!

We’ve received a great deal of positive feedback about the new and improved PGNY.com, and thank you all for letting us know some of your favorite things about the website’s redesign.  Perhaps the most universal “wow” was for the new photo system, which provides improved image viewing and dramatic zooming capabilities for all the photos on the site.  The second most common remark was that searching for rugs has become easier than ever, due to a refined and simplified search function.  We want to hear more, and look forward to more comments and feedback from you, our PGNY.com viewers and clients.

As part of the relaunch, we are continuously adding more inventory to the website, and should be 100% uploaded soon.  Keep your eyes peeled for many newly added oriental rugs, runners, pillows, and tapestries throughout all sections of the site, as well as several new Style categories to browse through.

Now, without further ado, we want to wish all our friends, family, and clients out there who celebrate Rosh Ha’Shana a happy and healthy new year, and Shana Tova to you and yours.  In observance of the holiday, we will be closed this Thursday and Friday, September 25-26.

We will be back here in the PGNY Rug Blog soon with more news, articles, updates, and commentaries, and look forward to hearing your input on all things area rugs, too!

Metro Market Week 2014, NYICS, and the Rug Show all happening this week!

With Labor Day weekend behind us, and summer all but over, the Area Rug Industry in launching into the Fall selling season with its three concurrent kickoff events, Metro Market Week, NYICS, and the Rug Show!

For those who might be unfamiliar with these events, Metro Market Week is the annual Area Rug Industry spectacular, where dealers in the New York and New Jersey metro areas invite their buyers, clients, designers, and other Area Rug Industry members to visit their showrooms to see their new collections, fresh offerings, and view their inventory.  Unlike some of the other shows in Atlanta, High Point, and elsewhere, where New York and New Jersey dealers can only bring along a small portion of their inventory, Metro Market Week emphasizes the dealers’ flagship locations, allowing for a more complete selection of rugs to be displayed.  This is the eleventh annual Metro Market Week, and while some of the pomp and circumstance of the early years has been done away with, gala dinners and cocktail parties were always secondary to the real “meat and potatoes” of the annual event.

This year, Metro Market Week serves an even more important function, in that it reunites many of the New York and New Jersey rug dealers under one umbrella again, after the unfortunate dissolution of the ORICA rug center in Secaucus earlier this year, and the recent departure of many longtime rug dealers from the New York scene.  For more information about Metro Market Week, its dates, times, participating dealers, and special offers for visitors, visit http://www.metromarketweek.com/

As part of Metro Market Week, two other major industry events are occurring, as well.  The first is NYICS, the New York International Carpet Show.  Taking place at the Metropolitan Pavilion, this show offers a chance to see samplings of some of the new and exciting offerings from many of New York’s “boutique” dealerships, and is a hidden gem in the hustle and bustle of Metro Market Week.  NYICS is an exciting show that is only in town through today, so catch it while you can!  Their website is http://www.nyics.com/

To see some of PGNY’s past exhibits in NYICS, check out the new Press Page of this website, by going to http://www.pgny.com/press/

The last show of the group is the one that has generated arguably the most fanfare, the Rug Show at Javits.  Taking place in the cavernous Jacob Javits Center on Manhattan’s west side, the Rug Show started out a couple of years ago as a show exclusively for rug dealers from Los Angeles who wanted to be part of the excitement of Metro Market Week here in the Big Apple, but across town from the rest of the dealers, and in their own forum.  The show has expanded and evolved since then, and now includes some of the biggest and best dealers from both coasts, including luminaries from Los Angeles, New York, and New Jersey.  It’s a hot ticket, and like NYICS, the Rug Show also ends today, so waste no time in getting there if you want to catch the show.  Their website is http://www.therugshow.com/

If you have the chance to catch the Rug Show at Javits and/or NYICS at the Metropolitan Pavilion, leave us a comment here on the all new PGNY Rug Blog and let us know what’s hot, what’s not, and anything else you want to discuss about Metro Market Week 2014!  We hope to hear from you all out there in internet-land, and continue to check back here frequently for all the exciting new things occurring at the new and improved PGNY.com, the Area Rug Industry’s leading source for antique oriental rugs, unique decorative carpets, and period European tapestries!

 

A New Beginning for PGNY.com

Welcome to the brand new PGNY Rug Blog, on the redesigned and relaunched PGNY.com! This year, in time for the beginning of Metro Market Week 2014, Persian Gallery New York is debuting its biggest revamp yet to its popular website, www.pgny.com, and as part of that, its highly regarded blog is also making the move to WordPress.

Browse through the redesigned PGNY.com to see all the wonderful new things that have been added to make it easier than ever to browse Persian Gallery’s industry-leading collection of antique oriental rugs, unique decorative carpets, and period European tapestries.  You’ll quickly see that this is more than just a facelift, as PGNY.com has been rebuilt from the ground up.

Picture viewing is greatly improved with the new PGNY.com, as the rug and tapestry images are larger and clearer than ever before, with a dramatic new zoom function that lets the viewer get up close and personal with each image, to get a truly detailed perspective of how each items looks.

There are also many new categories to explore within PGNY.com, including the new Press Page and Glossary sections, an upgraded and simplified Search section, new rug and tapestry categories, and much more.

And then there’s this, the new and improved, WordPress powered PGNY Rug Blog.  We will revisit some topics that were addressed in the previous Blogs, and cover many exciting new things in the world of antique rugs and tapestries, and in related fields.

This week, the big news is that the unofficial end of summer, Labor Day, has come and gone, and the area rug business is back in full swing with the return of Metro Market Week, the NYICS show at the NY Pavilion, and the NY Rug Show at the Jacob Javits Center.

We will have more information about those shows soon, but meanwhile, thanks for reading, and we’re happy to have you join us in our maiden voyage on the new PGNY Rug Blog. Sending a special thanks to the crew at Melotec for making our previous website and the original PGNY Rug Blog as big a success as it has been.

It’s onward and upward, and we look forward to discussing all things oriental rug with you right here in this space…