BOKHARA, TURKOMAN AND AFGHAN RUGS. By Hartley Clark. (John Lane.
31s. 6d.) A specialist is very rarely interesting to anybody but a specialist, and therefore " collectors' books " can usually only appeal to the average cultured man through their illus- trations. This is true of Mr. Clark's work on Bokhara, Turkoman and Afghan rugs. The matter of his monograph is informing, but its manner must be painful to any reader whose taste for prose has not been obliterated by his taste for rugs. He may, however, find balm for his wounds in the contemplation of the truly exquisite examples of Oriental carpets and rugs which Mr. Clark has illustrated. The pleasure which can be derived from these pictures, even where the varied sheen and the delicate • texture of the originals arc almost entirely lost and where the colours must be com- paratively thin, is great and, we can be confident, purely aesthetic. Here is no subject to intrude, with all its tail of argument. Wearied, perhaps, with our battledore and shuttlecock between Modernism and Palaeolithic drawings, we can find a restful certainty of truth in the uninterrupted expression of these Oriental visions in rhythmic form and colour.
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