Charles Grant Ellis. The author, George O'Bannon is in the background.

A visit to Charlie's is always a learning experience. A few years ago I would have said, "He seems to have seen and remembered every classical carpet there is." Today I would say, "He has seen and remembered every classical carpet there is." This trip convinced me of that, but more later.

Any interaction with Mr. Ellis often results in a short game of one-upmanship, which the challenger always loses. Prior to my visit I had written him and told him of a book I had seen in a card catalog in France published in the 19th century on French-made "oriental type" rugs from the 18th century. His reply, "Thanks for the reference, which I am unlikely to follow up -- a bit too late in the game, unfortunately," was on the one hand a score because I had found a book of which he was unaware on a topic which could be central to some of his theories. On the other hand, it indicated that he did not have time to pursue this and raised the question of who would follow through. Who indeed?

There were some specific items in Charlie's library which I knew I needed to see. They were books on Oriental rugs in a collection in Japan and were written in Japanese. These were quickly produced and data collected. I then started looking through older books. This is an experience. Charlie's books have marginal comments about the illustrated rugs: what dealer first had it on the market, who owned it when published, when it was sold at auction, who bought it, and where it is now. There may also be references to rugs of the same type, design, or origin in other books. The linkages and recorded observations and facts are unique. I was looking at the German edition of Erdmann's Seven Hundred Years of Oriental Carpets and noticed a carpet with "Vienna/Michaelian" handwritten beside it. I remarked that a dealer had had a similar rug at Maastricht in 1992. Charlie looked at the picture and said, "Yes, Beghian had a pair of those pieces. He got them from a mosque in Yugoslavia. The Vienna Museum bought one of them and Frank Michaelian bought the other. I remember showing it to a prominent collector some years ago who thought it was too worn. I never quite understood that."

When looking through some books on Spanish rugs, I happened to remark that there was a Spanish fragment in a December auction that was unusual and said to be silk. Charlie got up from his desk, walked over to a cabinet, rummaged around in some files, came back and deposited in front of me a photograph. "Is that it?" It surely was. He then went on to say he had seen the piece and it had been in a Mexico City collection. He then reached up and took down the catalog of the Philadelphia carpets and showed me a Turkish rug with virtually the same border pattern as the fragment. He also announced that it was not silk.

A while later, I was recording data on a book about rugs in paintings. I said something about how infrequently Bird Ushaks were seen and that I had only seen one in a painting in a small private museum in Madrid. He got up again, went to the files, took out a small notebook, sat down and started to read. "Museum - - - - -, third floor, painting attributed to - - - -, white Bird Ushak on table, not well drawn, exact type impossible to know from painting. Probably not painted by - - - -- either." Lose a point George, he knows that one too!

Among the things I wanted to clarify were the dates and number of printings of his publications, in particular his translation of Bode/Kuhnel. This was quickly taken care of. However, in compiling the bibliography, I had noted that an English translation had been published by Riefstahl in 1922. I asked why he had felt Bode/Kuhnel needed to be translated again. He pointed out that Riefstahl's native language was German and that the translation did not read easily, making it difficult for an English speaker to appreciate the book's importance. He had translated it to provide a more fluid and lucid text, aside from which there were the changes in the text to be considered.

I share these comments because they show that Charlie's library is not really a library but an archive. Webster defines the former as "a room or building where a collection of books, periodicals, etc. is kept for reading or reference." An archive is "a place where material having a documentary interest, as private papers, institutional records, memorabilia, photographs, etc., is kept." One is passive, the other active. There are more than just books at Charlie's. There are his marginal notes, his photographs of rugs that he has seen, his notebooks of rugs, paintings and people he has visited and recorded, and most importantly there is Charlie.

I made this trip to visit a library to find books and printed matter. What I found was a much fuller, rounded picture of how a real scholar goes about keeping and recording data and, without a computer, can retrieve it within a matter of seconds, mentally and physically. What exists there is an international treasure. Fortunately for us all, Charlie has seen fit to donate this amazing resource to The Textile Museum, with the stipulation that it remain with him as long as he is able to make use of it.

Before I near the end of this project, I'm sure I'll be back to look up a few more books in Charlie's archive.

[Editor's Note:Charles Grant Ellis died in 1996.

The following was a note to ORR editors from the author

Ron or Lyn: I have sent a copy of the following to Charlie for him to read, approve, and reject if he wishes or to make changes. I have refrained from mentioning Sotheby's, Herrmann, and dell'Oglio which Charlie did when discussing some of these things. I didn't want to mention them without his concurrence. I also told him that if he didn't mind it would be nice to mention at the end that his archive is supposed to be going to the TM. But this is one of those "near death" topics that he may not wish to think or write about. I have also told him that I will be away and that you will get in touch with him about this before printing anything or he may call you. If you don't get together on this, I will get in touch with him when I return the middle of January. I'm not sure myself that people are even interested in reading this type of thing.]