Survey of Persian Art from Prehistoric Times to the Present

1938

Special Collections N7280 PT58

London: Oxford University Press

My interest in Persian art and textiles was stimulated nearly 60 years ago when my husband and I lived in Edinburgh in the home of a lecturer in Persian Studies at Edinburgh University. Then in 1976 we spent a week in Iran visiting Shiraz, Persepolis and Isfahan where we marvelled at the stone, brick and coloured tile work of the architecture and enjoyed the colourful busy life in the bazaars. Back in Dunedin I was excited to find the massive six-volume Survey of Persian Art edited by Arthur Upham Pope and Phyllis Ackerman on the open shelves of the University Library. These volumes of text and images comprehensively cover architecture, ceramics, metal work, carpets and textiles, calligraphy, and the art of the book. For me, the valuable inclusion by Phyllis Ackerman of detailed drawings of the complex structures of woven textiles and carpets have been particularly helpful. These books are now housed in Special Collections.
(Chosen by Margery Blackman)