CARPET COLLECTING IN IRAN, 1873-1883: ROBERT MURDOCH SMITH AND THE FORMATION OF THE MODERN PERSIAN CARPET INDUSTRY

Abstract

Kensington Museum and for the British Museum for over ten years, and his purchases clearly stimulated the South Kensington Museum to expand its Persian collection when objects became available in London. During that period he established contact with merchants in the major cities of Iran, with the exception of Tabriz, with members of the ulema in Tehran and in the provinces, with highly placed bureaucrats at court, with Nasir al-Din Shah, and with several permanent European residents of Iran engaged in art collection. Smith's activities not only reflected the growing European interest in Iranian arts, crafts, and antiquities; they also helped stimulate, perhaps even create, a demand for these items, which in turn acted as a catalyst for the development of particular crafts, most notably carpet knotting, for the export market. The records of Murdoch Smith's art collecting contain information about the status of contemporary Iranian crafts including carpet production, merchant networks, the Qajar bureaucracy, and the transactions between Britons and Iranians dealing in art in the late nineteenth century. On April 28, 1873, Robert Murdoch Smith wrote to Henry Cole, Director of the Department of Science and Art of the South Kensington Museum, following earlier conversations between the two men concerning the building of a Persian art collection for the museum. Because Murdoch Smith's letter of application presented so completely and accurately both the possibilities and the limitations of art acquisition in Iran, it is worth reproducing in full: With references to our recent conversation I beg to inform you that, on my return to Persia to resume my official duties there in September next, I shall be happy to render your department any service in my power, in the way of purchasing artistic and ornamental objects, reporting periodically on my purchases and on such other objects of greater value as may appear to be suitable for the Museum, and generally as acting as an agent in Persia of the Department of Science and Art, should the India Office, on application, offer no objection to my doing so. There are no collections of such objects for ordinary sale in Persia, although many exist in private houses in every large town in the country. By death or embarrassed circumstances of the owners, such objects not unfrequently pass into the hands of the bazaar brokers, from whom they may be bought. They are usually however produced in very small numbers at a time, and no purchase can be concluded except after long bargaining and repeated references by the brokers to their clients. It is therefore impossible to obtain anything like a collection of Persian articles of this kind otherwise than by frequent purchases as occasions offer during a series of years. As my duties bring me into contact with Persians of all classes not only in the Capital but throughout the country, I should naturally have more opportunities than others less favorably circumstanced of hearing of the existence of artistic objects, which might be procured. And even in places where I was not personally present, I might enlist the aid of some of my English subordinates, with whom I could always communicate by telegraph. Should the Department of Science and Art decide on employing me in the capacity above referred to, I would beg to suggest that instructions be given me regarding the objects to be purchased, the limit to which I might act on my own responsibility without special reference to London, the nature of the accounts and vouchers required, etc. With regard to the last, I may mention that Persian vouchers (of necessity almost the only ones in this case) are in themselves of little value and are sometimes difficult to obtain owing to the repugnance the Persians have to transacting business by writing. It would probably be thought advisable that I should furnish the Department with a periodical report of my proceedings, say once a month. It would also I think be expedient to allow me to pay, as stimulus to exertion, a small percentage commission on purchases affected at a distance by means of subordinate agents.