Book 6

The Keir Collection is probably one of the most remarkable and wide-ranging collections of works of art gathered together in any country since World War II. It is famous for its Islamic art. With the publication of this sixth volume on the collection, its European textiles could well gain equal renown. There are few museums that can rival it in this field for its scope, quality, variety. It is particularly strong on Italian and French textiles of the 15th to the 18th centuries. But it has also many notable works from late antiquity, the medieval period and the Renaissance, produced in Egypt, Spain, England and Germany. Its coverage is so extensive that the book is in effect a general history of the subject illustrating the evolution of design and technique from Roman times to 1800.