Oriental Rugs. Mumford, John Kimberly (Introduction). THE CHARLES T. YERKES COLLECTION - CATALOGUE DE LUXE OF THE ANCIENT RUGS, SCULPTURES, TAPESTRIES, COSTLY FURNITURE AND OTHER OBJECTS BELONGING TO THE ESTATE OF THE LATE CHARLES T. YERKES. American Art Association, NY, 1910. An out-of-series copy from the edition of 150 copies. Folio, cloth, unpaginated (about 250pp+/-), illustrated with color and black and white plates. The most important part of the collection contained in this catalogue is that devoted to Oriental Rugs. Yerkes' collection of rugs was one of the finest ever assembled. In his introduction, Mumford, whose book "Oriental Rugs" (Scribners, 1900) remains a classic text, says "It is doubtful if there will again be offered at public sale, at least in America, a collection of ancient Oriental carpets so representative of the highest accomplishment, so impressively free from fabrics of mere utility, as that here assembled...He aimed to exclude, ultimately, everything save the exquisite but problematical Polish carpets and Persian fabrics made prior to the Seventeenth Century, when the art began to decline." The Catalogue contains 27 color plates, including 5 double sized fold-out plates, each accompanied by extensive descriptive text and commentary by Mumford (these were also published separately, in larger format, as "The Yerkes Collection of Oriental Carpets," Knapp NY, 1910. Very Good, with some creasing to the cloth of the spine. Scarce. Charles Tyson Yerkes (1837-1905) was an American businessman, philanthropist and art collector. His major achievement was the developemnt of the Elevated Loop, the lynchpin of Chicago's public transit system. He was considered ruthless and often unscrupulous, but his accomplishments were of major importance. Theodore Dreiser's "Cowperwood trilogy" - The Financier (1912), The Titan (1914), and The Stoic (1947) - was based on the life of Yerkes.
