Four Parishes Arts Society - November 2005

On Tuesday evening 11 October, in a change to the scheduled programme, Don Garman gave us an interesting talk packed full of information on the carpets of Azerbaijan. He told us of the culture and history of the carpet-makers and how carpets were used by the nomadic tribes as tents, as dowries in marriage and to record the history of families in their central designs.

Examples of the first carpets found in the mountains of Azerbaijan can now be seen in the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The craft spread through Turkistan, Egypt, Turkey and Persia and finally became a commercial trade.

We saw some beautiful designs by a researcher and teacher who is at present retraining village girls in this lost art.

Next month, on 8 November, we meet at Quarley Village Hall for a talk by Paul Courtenay on' Heraldry'. We have a skittles evening planned for 13 December and will need to know the number of those who would like to take part at the November meeting.