Ashmolean Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

The Beattie Archive was established at the Ashmolean Museum in June 2000, thanks to May Beattie’s generous bequest and vision for the creation of a centre devoted to the study of carpets. Her legacy comprises her specialized library of more than 1400 books, and her collection of carpets and weavings – more than 100 items dating from the 19th and 20th century. These are not for display, but were meant by Beattie to be for hands-on study at the Museum.

The unique significance of the archive, however, lies in the detailed documentation of carpets that May Beattie compiled during the course of her life. Based on her own physical examination, Beattie’s notes (about 55 volumes) record the results of her meticulous analysis of carpets – many of which are no longer available for study – in public and private collections throughout the world. About 15,000 analysis sheets detailing the structure of pieces she was able to access are now housed in the Department of Eastern Art, constituting an unrivalled resource for scholars in the field. Numerous files of articles, correspondence, and journals complete this part of the archive.

May Beattie's analysis sheet of the Hunting Carpet at the Poldi Pezzoli Museum, 1960s.    May Beattie’s notes of the Hunting Carpet at the Poldi Pezzoli Museum, which record her discovery of.

Detail of the Hunting Carpet (Iran, 1542-1543) at the Poldi Pezzoli Museum, Milan, Italy.   Detail of the Hunting Carpet (Iran, 1542-1543) at the Poldi Pezzoli Museum, Milan, Italy.

May Beattie’s extensive slide collection complements and enriches these documents. The image library contains approximately 15,000 slides and 14,000 photographs taken by Beattie between the 1930s and 1970s. These provide a record of a great number of carpets as well as images of weavers at work, looms and weaving tools, architecture, landscapes, and carpets depicted in both eastern and western paintings.

Weavers working on a vertical loom using a knot plan, Kerman, Iran.    Weaver working on a horizontal loom in Amritsar, India.

Street vendor of dyes at Bombay market, India.    Dyed yarn drying in Marrakesh, Morocco.    Carpets drying in the sun in Ray, Iran.

In addition to these items bequeathed by May Beattie in 1998, the Museum has a small collection of around 200 carpets and carpet fragments which were acquired during the 20th century. Some were given by individuals, including F. H. Andrews (1958) and Gerald Reitlinger (1978), while others were bought by the Museum with the help of the V&A Purchase Grant Fund.

Mughal carpet with floral pattern (EA1975.17)