Notes on Charles Grant Ellis


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Charles Grant Ellis

Uncle Charlie as he like to be called was the single greatest rug scholar. I was going to say of the twentieth century but I can not think of anyone who equals his contribution to the field.

I reviewed my notes on a lunch I had with Carol Bier at one o’clock 10/3/95 at the Jockey Club at the old Ritz Carleton on Massachusetts Ave in the District:

"I met with Carol Bier for lunch yesterday. It was a lot of fun to get her perspective on the rug world. She was reminiscing on how Charlie Ellis got started in rugs. Charlie's mother asked him to pick up some rugs that were in a shop for cleaning. It was the first time he ever really looked at them and he decided that he wanted to know what they were."

The late Grant Ellis Charles of Kingston, N.Y. was until his death in 1997 America's leading rug scholar.

Studied art and architecture at Princeton University.

Research Associate of the Textile Museum in Washington from 1962 until his death.

Early Caucasian Rugs
Oriental Carpets in the Philadelphia Museum of Art
Gifts from Kashan to Cairo, Textile Museum Journal, vol. 1, no. 1, 1962, pp. 33-46.
A Soumak-Woven Rug in a 15th Century International Style, Textile Museum Journal, vol. 1, no. 2, 1963, pp. 3-20.
The Little Gems of Ardebil, Textile Museum Journal, vol. 1, no. 3, 1964, pp. 18-20.
Some Compartment Designs for Carpets, and Herat, Textile Museum Journal, vol. 1, no. 4, 1965, pp. 42-56.
Mysteries of the Misplaced Mamluk, Textile Museum Journal, vol. 2, no. 2,1967, pp. 2-20.
Kirman's Heritage in Washington: Vase Rugs in the Textile Museum, Textile Museum Journal, vol. 2, no. 3,1968, pp. 17-34.
Chinese Rugs, Textile Museum Journal, vol. 2, no. 3, 1968, pp. 35-52.
The Ottoman Prayer Rugs, Textile Museum Journal, vol. 2, no.4, 1969, pp. 5-22.
Review of Seven Hundred Years of Oriental Carpets, by Kurt Erdmann, Textile Museum Journal, vol. 3, no. 2, 1971, pp. 42-43.
Is the Mamluk Carpet a Mandala?: A Speculation, Textile Museum Journal, vol. 4, no. 1, 1974, pp. 30-50.
The Strengths of The Textile Museum's Oriental Carpet Collection, Textile Museum Journal, vol. 24,1985, pp. 60-73.
"Carpets of Gujarat," Islamic Art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1972.
"Garden Carpets and Their Relationship to Safavid Gardens". Washington DC: ICOC 1980.
"Rug Collections In American Museums". Washington DC: ICOC 1980.
Ellis, Charles Grant: East of Turkestan, An Exhibition of Chinese Rugs and Textiles ; Washington DC: 1967.
Wilber, Donald N. and Ellis, Charles Grant. Persian Gardens and Garden Carpets. Unpublished, manuscript delivered to Oghuz Press but after many years no book.
Studied Transylvanian Rugs

Ellis, Charles Grant. Early Caucasian Rugs. Washington DC: The Textile Museum, 1975.

Ellis was a tremendous talent in the world of Oriental carpets. This book belongs in any serious library on Oriental Carpets.

Ellis, Charles Grant. East of Turkestan, An Exhibition of Chinese Rugs and Textiles ; Washington DC: 1967. Museum of Art, 1988.

Ellis, Charles Grant. Oriental Carpets in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Philadelphia: Philadelphia

A truly great book. A scholarly triumph. Perhaps the single most impressive rug book I have ever see. The pictures are good and the depth of analyses is outstanding. I wish every major collection was documented this well. One has to wonder why he did this book for the PMA rather than the TM.

My favorite picture of George from Charlie's Archive. Many people saw George in many different ways but here behind Charlie Ellis is the way I picture him in my mind.

Ellis and O'Bannon

George O'Bannon and Charles Grant Ellis were good friends. George usually called Ellis Uncle Charlie as many people did and when he spoke of him it was always with friendship and respect. I remember George telling me that at one point he thought he had identified a classic carpet that Uncle Charlie did not know about. Ellis had a virtually encyclopedic knowledge of classic Oriental carpets and it had become a game for George to try to find a rug that Ellis was unaware. Finnally George felt he had him and he showed him an obscure reference to a classic carpet in a 1932 auction catalogue. Ellis looked at it and said "Oh that one, it is on the north wall of the third floor of a museum in Madrid" (Spain). From what George told me he never was able to stump Uncle Charlie.

The world's most exclusive Rug Club.

The three members of the "International Society of Dating Carpet Beatles". Ellis to the left in the center May H. Beattie of Sheffield (UK) and Friedrick Spuhler, Berlin. This picture was taken April 1964 at the Glasgow Art Gallery & Museum in Glasgow Scotland. Ellis and Beattie were unusual in that they were never dealers. Their work lives on as the foundation of so much of today's scholarship.