Arthur Cecil Edwards

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Arthur Cecil Edwards (* 1881 ; † 1953 in London ) established and managed the business of Oriental Carpet Manufacturers (OCM) in Hamadan , the capital of the province of the same name in northwestern Iran , and later as managing director in London since 1911 . He became known as the author of The Persian Carpet ("The Persian Carpet", 1953), a detailed monograph on Iranian carpet manufacture in the first half of the 20th century.

Life

Edwards' uncle James Baker was one of the founders of the Oriental Carpet Manufacturers (OCM) company in Smyrna, today's Izmir , in 1907/8 . The company bought and manufactured Persian carpets for export to the UK.

In 1909 Edwards married Clara Carey Case. As an employee of the OCM, he and his wife moved to Hamadan in northwest Persia in 1911, where he set up and managed his own carpet production for his company. Their son Arthur was born in Hamadan on February 11, 1918. Both spouses were fascinated by Persian culture. In 1923 the Edwards left Iran, toured today's Pakistan and its carpet manufacturers for a few months, and finally moved to London. There Edwards took over the management of the OCM and expanded the business activities in the United States. He was also responsible for outsourcing carpet production to India in order to reduce production costs. During the Second World War, the family moved to Oxford and then returned to London. He and Clara became friends with the history philosopher Arnold J. Toynbee and the literary scholar Arnold J. Toynbee.

In 1948, after Edwards retired, he and his wife again toured Persia to collect material for his book The Persian Carpet: A Survey of the Carpet Weaving Industry of Persia . In 1953, before the book was published, A. Cecil Edwards died in London.

Works

  • The House of Life , Atlantic Monthly, 1904
  • 1924–1926: Individual poems in The Atlantic Monthly magazine .
  • The Persian Caravan , 1928, a collection of individual stories with exotic characters, inspired by Edwards' encounters in Persia. Scattered are ghaseles by the Persian poet Hafiz .
  • The Persian Carpet: A Survey of the Carpet Weaving Industry of Persia , published posthumously in 1953 and reprinted repeatedly. The monograph is still one of the standard works on the Persian carpet today. It describes in detail the manufacture, colors, patterns and the stylistic development of the Persian knotted carpet in the various provinces of Iran, as well as the history of the regions, their carpet production, number of looms and production figures from the end of the 19th to the middle of the 20th century , and gives an outlook on the future of the carpet industry under the influence of the European market. Synthetic colors and cheap knotting techniques destroyed the color and pattern as well as the structure of the Persian carpet in his time. His personal observations on site flow into his work, partly in anecdotes and partly in numerical material that he has collected himself.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Antony Wynn Mansel: Three camels to Smyrna: Times of war and peace in Turkey, Persia, India, Afghanistan & Nepal, 1907–1986: The story of the Oriental Carpet Manufacturers Company . Hali Publications, London 2008, ISBN 978-1-898113-67-6 .
  2. ^ Antony Wynn (2008): On the road with Cecil Edwards. Hali 158 (Winter 2008), pp. 37-39
  3. ^ Arthur Cecil Edwards: The House of Life, on unz.org. Retrieved June 19, 2016 .
  4. ↑ Arthur Cecil Edwards: Poems by AC Edwards on unz.org. Retrieved June 19, 2016 .
  5. ^ A. Cecil Edwards: The Persian Caravan . Duckworth, London 1928.
  6. ^ A. Cecil Edwards: The Persian Carpet . Gerald Duckworth & Co., Ltd, London 1953, ISBN 978-1-4683-1368-0 . Current edition: October 2016
personal data
SURNAME Edwards, Arthur Cecil
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Author of a standard work on the Persian carpet
DATE OF BIRTH 1881
DATE OF DEATH 1953
Place of death London