Threads of Empire: A History of the World in Carpets

Explore the history of the world through its fascinating carpets with historian Dorothy Armstrong. From a 5th-century BCE tomb to the 20th-century collection of oil magnate J Paul Getty, antique carpets are some of the most prized textiles in the history of art. Armstrong illuminates the skill and beauty of a selection of these woven artworks, their symbolism and allure, while highlighting the differences between the powerful people who owned them and the lives of their makers.

Dr Dorothy Armstrong is a historian of material culture, currently based at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. She specialises in the carpets of Asia and the roles they play in their places of production, consumption, and display. Her career includes research at the Royal College of Art, Victoria & Albert Museum and the universities of Cambridge, Edinburgh and London SOAS. Her current book is Threads of Empire: A History of the World in Twelve Carpets (Weidenfeld and Nicholson)

This talk celebrates the display of two new Dovecot artworks at V&A Dundee – The Garden Carpet and The Whitburgh Garden Carpet – created for the exhibition Garden Futures: Designing with Nature (from 17 May 2025).