Orient Stars 2: A Carpet Collection is a limited-edition companion to Orient Stars: A Carpet Collection (Stuttgart and London 1993). This new volume presents for the first time the early Turkish and Central Asian carpets added to the iconic 'Orient Stars' Collection by Heinrich and Waltraut Kirchheim after 1993. Focusing on some of the earliest and rarest examples ever seen, notably carpets and fragments made before the 16th century, the collection combines radio-carbon dating with new scholarly research by leading carpet scholar Michael Franses to write a new history of rug weaving and design development. Orient Stars 2 outlines the legacy of the Kirchheims in building the outstanding antique carpet collection of its generation and is an important addition to any library with a focus on Islamic art, carpets or the history of design development and transfer. Published to accompany the auction of part of the collection at Rippon Boswell, Wiesbaden, Germany in June 2021.
