Connecting through Collecting

Stanley Owen Roth, Textile Museum Trustee. Photo by Saul Loeb, courtesy of Getty Images.

What sparked your interest in textiles?
My interest in textiles was a direct result of the extensive international travel that was part of my job as a Congressional aide to a member of Congress serving on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Virtually every time I visited a country in the Middle East or Asia for the first time I became fascinated by the local customs and crafts. Soon I was pursuing at least three collections, all at the inexpensive end of the spectrum, as you might expect from a junior Congressional staffer in his 20s: hats (almost 200 now in my collection), weapons (a large number of knives and spears from the Middle East and Southeast Asia), and textiles. 

Tell me about making your first purchase – do you still have it?
My first textile purchase was in 1980, during my first visit to Indonesia, when I purchased a batik sarong. It was brand new and not especially valuable, but it got me interested in Southeast Asian textiles. 

Was there a specific moment when you really decided to pursue collecting? How did you follow this passion?
I've had the collecting bug going back to high school, when my grandfather gave me a bright yellow Arnold Palmer golfing hat and I wore it around Manhattan pretending to be from out of town, asking people on the street which building was City Hall. That got me started collecting hats. But my first antique purchase was not until after graduate school, when I bought an antique Roman oil lamp during a trip to Jerusalem. The thought that I could hold a 2,000-year-old object in my hands was a thrill that has not diminished over the years. As I was making at least six or seven international trips a year, I started adding to my collections on each trip, so much so that I had to move from a one-bedroom condominium to a four-bedroom house about 15 years ago. And now that house is too small to show all of my collections. 

How has your collection changed over the years?
Interestingly, I didn't collect many textiles in my first 10 to 15 years of collecting. That was partly [due to] income, but also a [result] of where I was traveling. For example, after visiting Turkey at the very beginning of my career in 1979, I didn't get there again until 2005. Since then, however, I've been fortunate to travel to Istanbul almost yearly, and have collected dozens of hats, a small but fascinating selection of tent bands, and several Turkmen bag faces.

The biggest change in my collecting habits came after I retired from government service and entered the private sector. For the past eight years, I've been able to focus more on buying fewer, higher-quality pieces, often with the intention of donating them to The Textile Museum.

Are there moments you have relished? Was there “one that got away?"
One of my greatest satisfactions is saving textiles that would otherwise have been destroyed.  This is particularly the case with respect to ethnic (non-Han) textiles in China, which are often cut up and used as decorations by fashion designers. On one occasion, while still in the government, I accompanied a number of women in our delegation to a chic clothing store recommended by the U.S. Embassy. I couldn't help but notice as we entered the store that a number of old textiles were hung from the ceiling, waiting to be made into hems, collars and patches for new garments. One particular garment from southern China caught my eye, and I insisted to the sales staff that they had to sell it to me. This ended up as a two-hour negotiation, where the owner was called into the store, I had to retain an interpreter, and a fierce negotiating process resulted in my acquiring the piece for less than one hundred dollars. This was to become my first donation to The Textile Museum several years later, and [it is] a source of tremendous satisfaction, as this garment has been displayed both in the Kennedy Center (during a Chinese festival) and in The TM’s [2008] BLUE exhibit. Every time I go back to Beijing I attempt to rescue another garment, although none to date are quite as spectacular as that first one.

I also relish opportunities to support indigent communities by purchasing new textiles that provide good jobs where only subsistence employment was previously available. I have both a Laotian silk wall hanging and a Sumatran ship cloth hanging in my office that [aren’t] museum-quality textiles but [do] give me as much satisfaction as anything else I've collected.

And, like every collector, I have a few "ones that got away" stories. To this day I regret that I was not clever enough to purchase the older, embroidered Palestinian dresses that used to be available in Jerusalem and Amman for a song in the early 1980s. On my last visit to these same cities only two years ago I wasn't able to find any older dresses amongst the hundreds of garish, mostly polyester dresses on sale at virtually every boutique. And I still remember the magnificent decorated veil that I declined to buy on my first visit to Saudi Arabia more than 25 years ago. I go regularly to Saudi Arabia these days but have never seen another one like it. But hope springs eternal and I'm still looking!!

What cultures or areas intrigue you most?
I'm not picky. It's rare that I travel to a place that doesn't intrigue me. Last year I went to Nigeria for the first time and became fascinated with the incredibly heavy metal anklets that the women used to wear. Shortly thereafter I was in Tokyo and acquired a woven fireman's hat that may be my favorite from the nearly 200 hats in my collection. Not long after that I was on vacation in Istanbul and "discovered" Iznik tiles.

What do you enjoy most about collecting?
I guess it's the connection to other cultures, the opportunity to connect to somebody else's way of life. At a time when globalization is pervasive and chain department stores are spreading across the world, I love the challenge of finding something local, and hopefully antique, everyplace I go.

What one or two words best describe your collection now?
Eclectic and, hopefully, shrinking. I'm trying to find other museums to which I can donate some of my non-textile collections so that these items can be preserved, studied and, hopefully in at least a few cases, viewed.

Do you have a favorite piece in your collection? If so, why?
Until you asked this question I've never thought about a sole favorite piece. At least a half dozen pieces came to mind as I started considering this question and probably another six will join them if I think about it much longer. I think as far as I would go is to say that my initial collection – hats – is my favorite collection.

Turban, central India, middle of the 19th century. The Textile Museum 2008.18.18, gift of Stanley Owen Roth.

I had shipped it home in a sturdy container, rather than put it in my luggage, precisely because I was worried about it coming undone. So when I brought it to The TM to show to Daniel Walker and he indicated that it was similar to a turban in the Victoria & Albert Museum, it was clear to me that the right thing to do was to donate it to The TM. He didn't even have to ask.

Was there a specific moment when you really decided to pursue collecting? How did you follow this passion?
I've had the collecting bug going back to high school, when my grandfather gave me a bright yellow Arnold Palmer golfing hat and I wore it around Manhattan pretending to be from out of town, asking people on the street which building was City Hall. That got me started collecting hats. But my first antique purchase was not until after graduate school, when I bought an antique Roman oil lamp during a trip to Jerusalem. The thought that I could hold a 2,000-year-old object in my hands was a thrill that has not diminished over the years. As I was making at least six or seven international trips a year, I started adding to my collections on each trip, so much so that I had to move from a one-bedroom condominium to a four-bedroom house about 15 years ago. And now that house is too small to show all of my collections. 

How has your collection changed over the years?
Interestingly, I didn't collect many textiles in my first 10 to 15 years of collecting. That was partly [due to] income, but also a [result] of where I was traveling. For example, after visiting Turkey at the very beginning of my career in 1979, I didn't get there again until 2005. Since then, however, I've been fortunate to travel to Istanbul almost yearly, and have collected dozens of hats, a small but fascinating selection of tent bands, and several Turkmen bag faces.

The biggest change in my collecting habits came after I retired from government service and entered the private sector. For the past eight years, I've been able to focus more on buying fewer, higher-quality pieces, often with the intention of donating them to The Textile Museum.

Are there moments you have relished? Was there “one that got away?"
One of my greatest satisfactions is saving textiles that would otherwise have been destroyed.  This is particularly the case with respect to ethnic (non-Han) textiles in China, which are often cut up and used as decorations by fashion designers. On one occasion, while still in the government, I accompanied a number of women in our delegation to a chic clothing store recommended by the U.S. Embassy. I couldn't help but notice as we entered the store that a number of old textiles were hung from the ceiling, waiting to be made into hems, collars and patches for new garments. One particular garment from southern China caught my eye, and I insisted to the sales staff that they had to sell it to me. This ended up as a two-hour negotiation, where the owner was called into the store, I had to retain an interpreter, and a fierce negotiating process resulted in my acquiring the piece for less than one hundred dollars. This was to become my first donation to The Textile Museum several years later, and [it is] a source of tremendous satisfaction, as this garment has been displayed both in the Kennedy Center (during a Chinese festival) and in The TM’s [2008] BLUE exhibit. Every time I go back to Beijing I attempt to rescue another garment, although none to date are quite as spectacular as that first one.

I also relish opportunities to support indigent communities by purchasing new textiles that provide good jobs where only subsistence employment was previously available. I have both a Laotian silk wall hanging and a Sumatran ship cloth hanging in my office that [aren’t] museum-quality textiles but [do] give me as much satisfaction as anything else I've collected.

And, like every collector, I have a few "ones that got away" stories. To this day I regret that I was not clever enough to purchase the older, embroidered Palestinian dresses that used to be available in Jerusalem and Amman for a song in the early 1980s. On my last visit to these same cities only two years ago I wasn't able to find any older dresses amongst the hundreds of garish, mostly polyester dresses on sale at virtually every boutique. And I still remember the magnificent decorated veil that I declined to buy on my first visit to Saudi Arabia more than 25 years ago. I go regularly to Saudi Arabia these days but have never seen another one like it. But hope springs eternal and I'm still looking!!

What cultures or areas intrigue you most?
I'm not picky. It's rare that I travel to a place that doesn't intrigue me. Last year I went to Nigeria for the first time and became fascinated with the incredibly heavy metal anklets that the women used to wear. Shortly thereafter I was in Tokyo and acquired a woven fireman's hat that may be my favorite from the nearly 200 hats in my collection. Not long after that I was on vacation in Istanbul and "discovered" Iznik tiles.

What do you enjoy most about collecting?
I guess it's the connection to other cultures, the opportunity to connect to somebody else's way of life. At a time when globalization is pervasive and chain department stores are spreading across the world, I love the challenge of finding something local, and hopefully antique, everyplace I go.

What one or two words best describe your collection now?
Eclectic and, hopefully, shrinking. I'm trying to find other museums to which I can donate some of my non-textile collections so that these items can be preserved, studied and, hopefully in at least a few cases, viewed.

Do you have a favorite piece in your collection? If so, why?
Until you asked this question I've never thought about a sole favorite piece. At least a half dozen pieces came to mind as I started considering this question and probably another six will join them if I think about it much longer. I think as far as I would go is to say that my initial collection – hats – is my favorite collection.

How does collecting textiles change how you think about the cultures from which you collect?
Once I acquire a textile, I try to learn as much [as possible] about the culture it came from. Often I knew next to nothing about a culture until I acquired a textile. For example, I acquired a Naga elephant cloth in London because I loved the design. I had never heard of the Nagas at that point, but I went out and started researching and eventually found a picture of a chief wearing a nearly identical cloth. It's a very personal way of learning about another culture.

How has your role as a collector informed your thought about institutions like The Textile Museum?
For a non-scholarly collector such as myself, institutions like The Textile Museum are invaluable resources for learning about the pieces I've acquired, including the mistakes. Often I'll purchase a piece and think "What is Mattiebelle going to say?" It's greatly reassuring to know that there are institutions that not only preserve the art and artifacts of cultures from around the globe but also study them and ensure that future generations have a better understanding of the cultures that produced these fabulous textiles.

What inspires you as a collector to donate an object to a museum?
If an item is in my collection, only I'm looking at it. And as my collection has outgrown my ability to display it, even after spilling over into my office, I don't even get to look at some of the items for years at a time. Last year, for example, I donated a collection of Hmong embroideries that had been in a dresser drawer for almost a decade. That seems like an awful waste, when it can be in a museum, available for study and possible display.

What criteria do you use for collecting textiles and determining which to donate?
Eclectic and, hopefully, shrinking. I'm trying to find other museums to which I can donate some of my non-textile collections so that these items can be preserved, studied and, hopefully in at least a few cases, viewed.

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