My flying carpet experience

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I was walking down King George Street in central Jerusalem yesterday, minding my own business (well . . . as much as any photo-blogger can).
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While passing, I glanced into the open door of the tall monumental Hechal Shlomo building, place of a Jewish museum and of many Jewish organization offices.

I did a double-take; couldn't believe my eyes; rushed inside!

There were Persian carpets everywhere, hundreds of them!

Suspended from the railings,

strewn on the stairs,

slung on benches,

and sometimes even stacked ten-high on the floor!

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I climbed three storeys, taking pictures of gorgeous handmade and Persian carpets on each floor.

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No one was around. No one to ask what this was.

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Finally I found a flyer announcing that the 324 carpets would go on auction July 29.

Estimated values went from a few hundred to over 10,000 shekels.

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You can click on the groups of numbers at the auctioneer's website and see each individual numbered carpet and a brief description of it. (Ironically, for blogger Sarah, who has showed us so many Persian carpets in their and her native country, this website may be the only way to see them because all our blog photos are being filtered there.)

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Everything is from the collection of Eli Sasson Carpets, located in Herzlia.

Eli Sassoon was born in Isfahan. He immigrated to Israel in 1963 and carried on the carpet business has family had begun in Iran.

In his beautiful brochure he describes a carpet as "the clothing worn by a place."

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I was intriqued by the many motifs and ancient symbols used in these carpets.

You can see them at his website.

This cute Tabriz round carpet, only one meter across, struck my fancy.

Maybe because it was the only round one I stepped across.

Not that I could ever buy a Persian carpet . . .

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But the surprise discovery of this treasure of artistic tradition was enough to make me feel like I was being transported--on a flying carpet!

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Luckily this was my world this week for That's My World Tuesday.

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