The Old Silk Route, in Aberdeen, North Carolina, offers a Southeast Asian cultural experience. Its owner, Ann Magee, is proud of each handmade item skillfully crafted by master artisans in India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.
Ann's introduction to Southeast Asia came as her husband was posted to New Delhi, India in 1978 where they remained for six years. Traveling widely throughout the region, she became enthralled with the local arts and crafts and started the Ann Magee Collection, a small wholesale business selling Indian tapestries.
Her exhibits include a joint exhibit with the National Geographic Society at the presitigious Washington National Press Club in honor of the visiting Indian Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi; The Baltimore World Trade Center; The Parr Gallery; Soho, New York City; the Homestead Hotel, Hot Springs, Virginia; and the Pinehurst Hotel, Pinehurst, North Carolina. Her favorite exhibit was at Saint Bartholomew's in New York City two years ago.
When her daughter married a Pakistani and moved to Pakistan in 1991, she started the Old Silk Route, primarily a wholesale import business specializing in textiles marketed through the High Point Furniture Market, the New York Gift Show, and smaller regional markets.
The Old Silk Route is named after the stretch which lies between what is now Pakistan and the ancient land of China. Since the days of Marco Polo, conquerors and travelers have embarked on the arduous journey on foot, on horseback or camel, and the legacy of that first path which brought the silks of China to market was a fitting one for Ann Magee to showcase the treasures of Southeast Asia.
