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CARPET

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Originally appearing in Volume V05, Page 397 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CARPET , the name given to any See also:

kind of textile covering for the ground or the See also:floor, the like of which has also been in use on couches and seats and sometimes even for See also:wall or See also:tent hangings or curtains. In See also:modern times, however, carpet usually means a patterned fabric See also:woven with a raised See also:surface of tufts (either See also:plain or enriched with See also:needlework or printed with patterns; others are woven after the manner of See also:tapestry-See also:weaving (see TAPESTRY). or in See also:imitation of it, and a further class of carpets is made of See also:felt. (see FELT). This last material is entirely different from that of See also:shuttle or tapestry weaving. Although carpet weaving by See also:hand is, and for centuries has been, an See also:Oriental See also:industry, it has also been, and is still, pursued in many See also:European countries. Carpet-weaving by See also:steam-driven machinery is solely European in origin, and was not brought to the See also:condition of See also:meeting a widespread demand until the loth See also:century. In connexion with the word " carpet " (See also:Lat. carpita, See also:rug; 0. Fr. See also:car pite) See also:notice may be taken of the Gr. Tams and the Lat. tapetium, whence also comes the Fr. Lapis (the yjstory. See also:present word for " carpet ") as well as our own word " tapestry." This latter, though now more particularly descriptive of hangings and curtains woven in a See also:special way, was, in later See also:medieval times, indiscriminately applied to them and to stuffs used as floor and seat coverings. From a very See also:early See also:period classical writers make mention of them. In See also:ancient See also:Egypt, for instance, floor and seat coverings were used in temples for religious ceremonies by the priests of See also:Amen Ra; later on they were used to See also:garnish the palaces of the Pharaohs.

If one may See also:

judge from rare remains of decorative textiles, in the museum at See also:Cairo especially, dating from at least 148o B.C., such See also:Egyptian fabrics were of See also:linen inwoven with coloured wools in a tapestry-weaving manner, and were not tufted or piled textures. Taken from the See also:palace at See also:Nineveh is a large See also:marble slab carved in See also:low See also:relief with a geometrical See also:pattern surrounded by a border of See also:lotus See also:flowers and buds, evidently a copy of an See also:Assyrian floor See also:cover or rug about 705 B.C., such as was also woven probably in the tapestry-weaving manner. On the other- hand, its See also:design equally well suggests patchwork—a method of needlework in See also:vogue with Egyptians, at least 900 years B.C., for ornamental' purposes, as indicated by the elaborately patterned See also:canopy which covered the bier of an Egyptian queen—the See also:mother-in-See also:law of Shishak who took See also:Jerusalem some three or four years after the See also:death of Solomon—and is preserved in the museum at Cairo.' In the Odyssey, tapetia are frequently mentioned, but these again, whether floor coverings or hangings, are more likely to have been See also:flat-textured and not piled fabrics. On the See also:tomb of See also:Cyrus was spread a " covering of Babylonian tapestry, the carpets underneath of the finest wrought See also:purple " (See also:Arrian vi. 29). See also:Athenaeus (bk. v. ch. 27) gives from Callixenus the Rhodian (c. 28o n.e.) an See also:account of a banquet given by See also:Ptolemy Philadelphus at See also:Alexandria, and describes " the purple carpets of finest See also:wool, with the pattern on both sides," as well as " handsomely embroidered rugs very beautifully elaborated with figures "; these again were probably not piled fabrics but kindred to the hangings in the palace of Ptolemy Philadelphus decorated with' portraits, which were likely to have been of tapestry-weaving, and would be nearly the same in See also:appearance on both sides of the fabric. Of corresponding tapestry woven See also:work are Egypto-See also:Roman specimens dating from the and or 3rd century A.D., a considerable collection of which is in the See also:Victoria and See also:Albert' Museum at See also:South See also:Kensington. Front about the same period date bits of hangings or coverings woven in linen, over-wrought in a method of needlework with See also:ornament of compact loops of worsted (See also:Plate I. See also:figs. r and 2). These are the earliest extant specimens of textiles presenting a tufted or piled surface very kindred to that of woven See also:pile carpets of much later date. But the modus operandi in producing the earlier only remotely corresponds with that of the later—though making a surface of loops by means of needlework as in the Coptic or Egypto-Roman specimens of Plate I. figs.

1 and 2 seems to be a step in a progress towards the introduction at an apparently later date of tufts into See also:

loom weavings such as we find in 16th-century tufted or piled carpets. The See also:simple traditional Oriental method of making these latter is briefly as follows:—The See also:foundation is a warp of strong See also:cotton Method of or hempen or woollen or See also:silk threads, the number of making which is regulated by the breadth of the carpet and piled the fineness or coarseness to be given to its pile. carpets. See also:Short lengths of coloured wool or goats' or camels' See also:hair or silk are knotted on to each of the warp threads so that the two ends of each twist or tuft of coloured See also:yarn, of whatever material it is, project in front. Across the width of the warp and above the range of tufts a weft See also:thread is run in; another See also:line or See also:row of tufts is then knotted, and above this another weft thread is run in across the warps, and so on. These rows of tufts and weft as made are compressed together by means of a See also:blunt See also:fork or See also:rude See also:comb-like See also:instrument, and thus a compact textile with a pile or tufted surface is produced; the projecting tufts are then carefully clipped to an even surface. In the See also:East the rude wooden frames in which the warp-threads are stretched either stand upright upon, or are level with, the ground. They are easily transported and put together, and the weaving in them is done chiefly by wandering See also:groups of weavers. The See also:local surroundings, often those of rocky arid districts, in which Kurdish and other families weave carpets are well illustrated in Oriental Rugs by J. H. Mumford. For making pile carpets and rugs two traditional knots are in use; the first is termed the See also:Turkish or Ghiordes See also:knot, from Ghiordes, an old See also:city not far from See also:Brusa.

It is in vogue principally throughout See also:

Asia See also:Minor, as far east as See also:Kurdistan and the See also:Caucasus, but it is also used farther south-east in parts of See also:Persia and See also:India. The yard of the pile is knotted in short lengths upon the warp-threads so that the two outstanding ends of each knot alternate with every two threads of the warp. The second traditional knot is the See also:Persian or Sehna knot, which, though better calculated to produce a See also:close, See also:fine, even, velvety surface, has in many parts of Persia been abandoned for the Ghiordes knot, which is a trifle more easily tied. The Persian or Sehna knot is tied so that from every space between the warp-threads one end of the knot protrudes. The number of knots to the See also:inch tied according to either the Turkish or Persian method is determined by the See also:size and closeness of the warp-threads and the size and number of weft-threads thrown across after each row of knots. The patterns of the fabrics made by See also:country weavers are usually taken by them from old rugs. But in towns where weaving is conducted under more organized conditions new patterns are often devised, and are traced sometimes upon See also:great cardboards, on which the stitches, or knots, are indicated by squares each painted in its proper See also:colour. In some of the Persian carpets and rugs made at Sehna, Kirman and See also:Tabriz, the warp is of silk, a material that contributes to fine compact pile textures. There is much uncertainty as to the period when cut pile carpets were first made in the East. Their texture is certainly akin to that of See also:fustian and See also:velvet; while that of the Date of finer Persian carpets, which were not made much See also:original ' earlier than about the 15th century, is practically not, Pile distinguishable from velvet, having See also:long or heavy pile. textures. Fustian, the See also:English name for a cut short pile textile, is derived from Fostat (old Cairo), and such material is likely to have been made there, as soon as anywhere else, by See also:Saracens, especially during the propitious times of the Fatimite Khalifs, who for more than two centuries previously to the 13th century were noted for the, encouragement they gave to all sorts of arts and manufactures. It seems that velvet came into use in See also:Europe not much earlier than the 14th century, and various See also:French See also:church inventories of the See also:time contain entries of " tapis velus (cut pile carpets) d'aultre mer, a mettre See also:par terse" (see Essai sur l'histoire See also:des tapisseries et tapis, by W.

Chocqueel, See also:

Paris, 1863, pp. 22-23). It is an open question if the making of cut pile carpets in Persia or by Saracens elsewhere preceded that of fustians and velvets or whether the developments in making the three proceeded See also:part passu. The making of carpets with a flat surface, however, is probably far older than that of cut pile carpets, and characteristic of one such old method is that in the making of Soumak car-pets (Plate II. fig. 5), the ornament of which done in close See also:needle stitches with coloured threads completely conceals the stout See also:flax or See also:hemp See also:web which is the essential material of these carpets. Soumak is a distortion of Shemaka, a Caucasian See also:town in the far east of Asia Minor. But so-called Soumak carpets are made in other districts, and the particular needlework used in them is practically of the same kind as that on a smaller See also:scale used for the well-known Persian Nakshe or woman's trousering, and again that used on a still smaller scale in the ornamentation of valuable See also:Kashmir shawls. Quilted and See also:chain-stitched cotton See also:prayer and See also:bath rugs from Persia are referred to in the See also:article on See also:EMBROIDERY. Another method of making carpets with a flat surface is that of tapestry-weaving (see Plate II. fig. 4), which, according to existing and well-authenticated specimens of considerable antiquity (already referred to), appears to be the See also:oldest of any historic See also:process of ornamental weaving (see TAPESTRY). Very broadly considered, the traditional designs or patterns of Oriental carpets fall into two classes: the one, prevailing to a much larger extent than the other, seems to reflect motives In the austerity of the Sunni or orthodox Mahommedans traditional in making patterns with abstract geometric and designs La. angular forms, stiff interlacing devices, cryptic signs pnt and symbols and the like; whilst the other suggests the freer thought of the Shiah or unorthodox See also:sect, in Carpets with flat surface. designs of ingenious blossom and leafy scrolls, conventional arabesques, botanical and See also:animal forms, and cartouches enclosing Kufic See also:inscriptions (see the splendid example known as the See also:Ardebil carpet, Plate III. fig.

7, and another in Plate IV. fig. 9). Types of the more austere design occur in carpets from See also:

Afghanistan, See also:Turkestan, See also:Bokhara and Asia Minor, N.W. India and even See also:Morocco, the other types of freer design being almost special to Persian rugs and carpets. Next in historic importance to Persia, Turkestan and Asia Minor is India, where the making of cut pile carpets—known as Kalin and Kalicha—was presumably introduced 14th century. But the industry did not apparently attain importance until after the See also:founding of the See also:Mogul See also:dynasty by See also:Baber early in the 16th century. The designs mainly derived from those of Persian carpets of that period do not as a See also:rule rise to the excellence of their prototypes. See also:Historical centres of See also:Indian carpet making are in Kashmir, the See also:Punjab and See also:Sind, and at See also:Agra, See also:Mirzapur, See also:Jubbulpore, See also:Warangal in the See also:Deccan, See also:Malabar and See also:Masulipatam. Velvets .are richly embroidered in See also:gold and See also:silver thread at See also:Benares and See also:Murshidabad and used as ceremonial carpets, and silk pile carpets are made at See also:Tanjore and See also:Salem. For the most part the best of the Indian woollen pile carpets have been produced by workers of repute engaged by princes, great nobles and wealthy persons to carry on the See also:craft in their dwellings and palaces. These groups of highly skilled.. workers as part of the See also:household See also:staff were paid fixed salaries, but they were also allowed to execute private orders. During the 19th century the carpet industry was See also:developed in See also:government gaols.

Produced in great quantities the See also:

prison-made carpets as a rule are less well turned out, and the competition; set up betewen them and the rugs and carpets of private factories has had a somewhat detrimental effect upon the industry generally. Older in origin than the cut pile carpets are those of thinner and flat surface texture, which from almost immemorial times have been woven in cotton with See also:blue and See also:white or blue and red stripes in the simplest way. These are called daris and satranjis, and are made chiefly in Benares and See also:northern India. They are also made in the south and by such See also:aborigines retaining See also:primitive habits as the See also:Todas of the Nilgiri Hills, a fact which points to the See also:age of this particular method of making ground or floor coverings. A condition that has always controlled the designs of Oriental carpets is their rectangular shape, more often oblong than Condition square. As a rule, there is a well-schemed border, controlling enclosing the See also:main portion or See also:field over which the designs of details of the pattern are symmetrically distributed. Oriental Simpler patterns in the field of a carpet or rug consist carpets. of repetitions of the same See also:device or of a small number of different devices (see Plate II. fig. 4). Richer patterns display more organic pattern in the construction, of which the leading and continuous features are expressed as diversified bands, scrolls and curved stems; amongst these latter are very varied devices which See also:play either predominant or subordinate parts in the whole effect of the design (Plate III. fig. 7). Angular and simplified treatments of these elaborate designs are rendered in many Asia Minor or See also:Turkey carpets (Plate I. fig.

3); but the typical flowing and more graceful versions. are of Persian origin (see Plate III. fig. 7, and Plate IV. fig. 9), usually of the 16th century. Mingled in such intricate See also:

stem designs or " arabesques " are details many of which have been derived on the one hand from See also:Sassanian and even from far earlier Mesopotamian emblematical ornament based on cheetahs seizing gazelles, on floral forms, blossoms and buds so well See also:con ventionalized in Assyrian decoration, and on the other hand from Tatar and See also:Chinese See also:sources. The See also:style, strong in See also:suggestion of successive historical periods, seems to have been ,matured in Mosil engraved and damascened See also:metal work of the 12th and 13th centuries before its occurrence in Persian carpet designs, the finest of which were produced about the reign of Shah Abbas. A See also:good See also:deal earlier than this period are carpets designed chiefly according to the simpler See also:taste of the See also:Sunnites, and such as theseappear to be mentioned by Marco See also:Polo (1256–1323) when See also:writing that " in Turcomania they weave the handsomest carpets in the See also:world." He quotes Conia (Konieh in See also:Anatolia), Savast (See also:Sivas in Asia Minor), some 3oo m. See also:north-east of Konieh, and Cassaria (Kaisaria or Caesaraea in Anatolia) as the See also:chief weaving centres. It is the carpets from such places rather than from Persia that appear to have been the first Oriental ones known in European countries. Entries of Oriental carpets are frequent in the inventories of European See also:cathedral. treasures. In See also:England, for instance, carpets are said to have been first employed by See also:Queen Eleanor of See also:Castile and her See also:suite during the latter part of the carpets la Europe. :13th century, who had them from See also:Spain, where their 'manufacture was apparently carried on by Saracens or See also:Moors in ,the See also:southern part of the country. On the other hand, See also:Pierre See also:Dupont, a See also:master carpet-maker of the Savonnerie (see below), gives his See also:opinion in 1632 that the introduction of carpet-making into See also:France was due to the Saracens after their defeat by See also:Charles Martel in A.D. 726.

But more historically precise is the See also:

record in the See also:book of crafts (Livre des metiers) by See also:Etienne Boileau, See also:provost of the merchants in Paris (1258–1268), of " the tapicers or makers of lapis sarrasinois,l who say that their craft is for the service only of churches or great men like See also:kings and nobles." In the 13th and 14th centuries Saracen weavers of See also:rich and ornamental stuffs were also employed at See also:Venice, which was a chief centre for importing Oriental goods, including carpets, and distributing them through western Europe. Dr See also:Bode, in his Vorderasiatische Kniipfteppiche, instances Oriental carpets with patterns mainly of geometric and angular forms represented in frescoes and other paintings by Domenico di Bartolo (1440), Niccolo di Buonaccorso (1450), Lippo Memmi (148o) and others. Of-greater See also:interest perhaps, and especially as throwing See also:light upon ,the See also:trade; if not the making of, carpets in England somewhat in the method of contemporary Turkey carpets, is the specimen represented in Plate III. fig. 6. This may have been made in England, where See also:foreign workmen, especially Flemings, were from early times often encouraged to See also:settle in See also:order to develop See also:industries, amongst which pile carpet-making probably and .tapestry-weaving certainly were included. The earliest record of tapestry-weaving See also:works in England is that of See also:William See also:Sheldon's at Barcheston, See also:Warwickshire, in 1509, and, besides wall hangings, carpets of tapestry-weaving were also possibly made there.2 The cut pile carpet belonging to See also:Lord Verulam (Plate III. fig. 6) was perhaps made at See also:Norwich. It has a repeating and simply contrived continuous pattern of carnations and intertwining stems with a large See also:lozenge in the centre bearing the royal arms of England with the letters E. R. (See also:Elizabeth See also:Regina) and the date 1570. It also has the arms of the See also:borough of See also:Ipswich and those of the See also:family of Harbottle. The sequence or continuity of its border pattern fails in the corners at one end of the rug or carpet in a way very See also:common to many Asia Minor and See also:Spanish carpets (see Plate I. fig.

3, Plate II. fig. 4, and Plate IV. fig. 1o); not, however, to the See also:

majority of Persian carpets (see Plate III. fig. 7, and Plate IV. fig. 8). A large cut pile carpet in the Victoria and Albert Museum has a repeating pattern of See also:star devices, rather Moorish in style, with the inscription on one end of the border, " Feare See also:God and Keep His Commandments, made in the yeare 1603," and in the field the See also:shield of arms of See also:Sir See also:Edward Apsley of Thakeham, See also:Sussex, impaling those of his wife, Elizabeth See also:Elmes of See also:Lifford, See also:Northamptonshire. This may have been made in England. A carpet of very similar design, especially in its border, is to be seen in a See also:painting by Marc Gheeraedts of the See also:conference at old See also:Somerset See also:House of English and Spanish plenipotentiaries (1604), now in the See also:National Portrait See also:Gallery, See also:London. A more important and t The tapissiers sarrasinois were apparently the makers of piled or velvety carpets, and have always been written about in contra-distinction to the tapissiers de haute lisse or tapissiers nostrez, who it appears did not weave piled or velvety material, but made tapestry-woven hangings and coverings for See also:furniture. 2 In See also:Hakluyt's Voyages mention is made of directions having been given to See also:Morgan Hubblethorne, a See also:dyer, to proceed (about 1579) to Persia to learn the arts of See also:dyeing and of making carpets. Indian by the Mahommedans during the latter part of the carpets. finer carpet belongs to the Girdlers' See also:Company (Plate IV. fig.

8), and is of Persian design, into which are introduced the arms of the company, See also:

shields with eagles, and white panels with English letters, the See also:monogram of See also:Robert See also:Bell the master in 1634, but this was made at See also:Lahore 1 to his order. Before dealing with later phases of the carpet industry in England, mention may now be made of Spanish carpets, of European as distinct from Saracenic or Persian end of the 15th century or the beginning of the 16th century. It is only within See also:recent years that specimens of them have been obtained for public collections, and at present little is known of the factories in Spain whence they came. A large and most interesting See also:series is shown in the Victoria and Albert Museum, and a portion of one of the earlier of the Spanish cut pile carpets in that museum is given in Plate IV. fig. 1o. The inner repeating pattern has suggestions of a lingering Moorish See also:influence, but a See also:superior version of it with better See also:definition is to be seen in extant bits of Spanish shuttle-woven silks of the 16th century. The border of distorted See also:dragon-like creatures is of a See also:Renaissance style, and this style is' more pronounced in other Spanish carpets having See also:borders of poorly treated See also:Italian 16th-century See also:pilaster ornament. Beside cut pile, many Spanish carpets of the 17th and 18th centuries have looped and flat surfaces, and See also:bear Spanish names and inscriptions; many too are of needlework in tent or See also:cross stitch. Another interesting class of very fine pile carpets that has also become known comparatively recently to collectors is the so- called See also:Polish carpets, generally made of silk pile for gold and silver thread textile for the ground, very much after the manner of early 17th-century Brusa fabrics. Many of these carpets are in the See also:Czartoryski collection at See also:Cracow. They are discussed by Dr Bode in his See also:treatise on Oriental carpets already referred to. European coats of arms of the persons for whom they were made are often introduced into them, sometimes different in workmanship from that of the carpets, though there are specimens in which the workmanship is the same throughout.

The details of their designs consist for the most part of arabesques and long curved serrated leaves similar to such as are commonly used in Rhodian pottery decoration of the 16th century, though more typical of those so frequent in 17th-century Turkish ornament. Various considerations See also:

lead to the conclusion that these so-called Polish carpets were probably made in either See also:Constantinople or See also:Damascus (tapete Damaschini frequently occur in Venetian inventories of the 16th century) rather than, as has been thought, by the Persian workmen employed at the Mazarski silk factory which lasted for a short period only during the 18th century at Sleucz in See also:Poland. The European carpet manufactory, of which a continuous See also:history for some two See also:hundred and fifty years is recorded with exceptional completeness, is that which has been Carpets maintained under successive regimes, royal, imperial made in and republican, in France—at the Hotel des Gobelins France. in Paris. Seventy years before its organization under See also:Colbert in 1667 as a See also:state manufactory (Manufacture Royale des Meubles de la Couronne), See also:Henry IV. had founded royal See also:art work-shops for all sorts of decorative work, at the Louvre; and here in 1604 a workroom was established for making Oriental carpets by the See also:side of that which existed for making tapis Jlamands. In 1610 letters patent were granted to the Sieur Fortier, who has been reputed to be the first inventor in France of the art of making in silk and wool real Turkey and See also:ether piled carpets with grounds of gold thread, which must have been sumptuous fabrics probably resembling the so-called Polish carpets of this date. Some ten years later it is recorded that Pierre Dupont and See also:Simon Lourdet started a pile carpet (tapis veloutes) manufactory at Chaillot (Paris) in large premises which had been used for the manufacture of soap—whence the name of " Savonnerie." To this converted manufactory were transferred in 1631 the carpet- ' The Royal Factory at Lahore was established by See also:Akbar the Great in the 16th century,makers from the Louvre, and under the See also:direct patronage of the See also:crown it continued its operations for many years at Chaillot. It was not until 1828 that the making of tapis de la Savonnerie (pile carpets of a fine velvety See also:character) was transferred to the Hotel des Gobelins. Here, in contradistinction to the Savonnerie, carpets are made others which, like those of See also:Beauvais (where a manufactory of hangings and carpets was established by Colbert in 1664), are lapis See also:ras or non-piled carpets, being of tapestry-weaving, as also are those made by old-established firms at See also:Aubusson and at Felletin, where the manufacture was flourishing, at the former See also:place in 1732 and at the latter in 1737. Returning now to England, there are evidences towards the end of the 17th century, if not earlier, that Walloon and Flemish makers of Turkey pile carpets had settled and set up works in different parts of the country. A protective See also:charter, for instance, was granted in 1701 by William III. to weavers in See also:Axminster and See also:Wilton. The ultimate celebrity of the pile carpet industry at Wilton was due mainly to the interest taken in it during the earlier part of the 18th century by Henry, See also:earl of See also:Pembroke and See also:Montgomery, who in the course of his travels abroad collected certain French ,and Walloon carpet-makers to work for him in Wiltshire—over them he put two Frenchmen, See also:Antoine Dufossy and Pierre Jemale.

More notable, however, than these is Pere Norbert, who naturalized himself as an Englishman, changed his name to Parisot, and started a manufactory of pile carpets and a training school in the craft at See also:

Fulham about 1751. In 1753 he wrote and published " An account of the new manufactory of Tapestry after the manner of that at the Gobelins, and of carpets after the manner of that at Chaillot (i.e. Savonnerie) now under-taken at Fulham by Mr See also:Peter Parisot." Two refugee French carpet-makers from the Savonnerie had arrived in London in 1750, and' started weaving a specimen carpet in See also:Westminster. Parisot, having found them out, induced the See also:duke of See also:Cumberland to furnish funds for their removal to better workrooms at See also:Paddington. The carpet when finished was presented by the duke to the princess See also:dowager of See also:Wales. Parisot quarrelled with his two employees, enticed others to come over, and then removed the carpet works from Paddington to Fulham. A worker, J. See also:Baptiste Grignon, writing to " Mr Parisot in Foulleme Manufactory," mentions the marked preference " shown by the English See also:court for velvet," and how much a "See also:chair-back he had worked in the manner of the Savonnerie had been admired." See also:Correspondence published in the Nouvelles Archives de 1'art See also:francais (1878) largely relates to the efforts of the French government to stop the See also:emigration to England of workers from the Gobelins and the Savonnerie. Parisot's Fulham works were sold up in 1755. He then tried to start a manufactory at See also:Exeter, but apparently without success, as in 1756 his Exeter stock was sold in the Great Piazza See also:auction rooms, Covent See also:Garden. See also:Joseph See also:Baretti (Dr See also:Johnson's friend), writing from See also:Plymouth on the 18th of See also:April 1760, alludes to his having that See also:morning visited the Exeter manufactory of tapisseries de Gobelins " founded by a distinguished See also:anti-Jesuit—the renowned See also:Father Nobert." Previously to this a Mr Passavant of Exeter 2 had received in 1758 a See also:premium from the Society of Arts of London for making a carpet in " imitation of those brought from the East and called Turky carpets." Similar premiums had been awarded by the society in 1757 to a Mr See also:Moore of Chiswell See also:Street, Moorfields, and to a Mr Whitty of Axminster. In 1759 a society's premium was won by Mr Jeffer of See also:Frome.

In the Transactions of the Society, vol. i., dated 1783, it is stated that by their rewards, the manufacture of " Turky carpets is now established in different parts of the See also:

kingdom, and brought to a degree of elegance and beauty which the Turky carpets never attained." Such records as these convey a See also:fair notion of the sporadic attempts which immediately preceded a systematic manufacture of pile carpets in this country. Whilst the Wilton industry survived, that actually 2 A wealthy serge-maker of Swiss See also:nationality, who had been settled for some years in Exeter, and bought up the plant of Parisot's Exeter works. (See Bulletin de la societe de l'histoire de ''art franfais, p. 97, vol. 1875 to 1878.) Spanish design; the making of them See also:dates at least from the carpets. Polish the ornament, which is distinctively Oriental, and of carpets. 396 carried on at Axminster died towards the end of the 18th century, and the name of Axminster like that of Savonnerie carpets now perpetuates the memory of a locally deceased manufactory, much as in a parallel way See also:Brussels carpets seem to owe their name to the renown of Brussels as an important centre in the 15th and 16th centuries for tapestry-weaving. Before the existence of steam-driven carpet-making machinery in England, employers, following the example set by the French, applied the See also:Jacquard apparatus, for regulating and modem machineryfacilitating the weaving of patterns, to the hand . manufacture of carpets. This was early in the 19th century; a great See also:acceleration in producing English carpets occurred, severely threatening the industry as pursued (largely for lapis ras) at See also:Tournai in See also:Belgium, at See also:Nimes, See also:Abbeville, Aubusson, Beauvais, See also:Tourcoing and See also:Lannoy in France. The severity of 1 he competition, however, was still more increased when English enterprise, developing the inventions of See also:Erastus B. See also:Bigelow (1814–1879) of See also:America and Mr William See also:Wood of England, took the lead in perfecting Jacquard weaving carpet looms worked by steam, which resulted in the setting up of many See also:power-loom carpet manufactories in the See also:United Kingdom.

It was not until 188o that French pile carpet manufacturers began to adopt similar carpet power-looms, importing them from England. These See also:

machines for weaving pile carpets, either looped (boucle) as in Brussels, or cut (veloute) as in Wilton or Axminster carpets, were similar in all respects to such as had been in use by the important English manufacturers—Crossleyof See also:Halifax, Templeton of See also:Glasgow, See also:Humphreys of See also:Kidderminster, See also:Southwell of See also:Bridgnorth, and others. A so-called tapestry carpet weaving-loom was invented by See also:Richard Whytock of See also:Edinburgh in 1832, but it was not brought to sufficient completeness for sustained manufacture until 1855. The essential feature of Mr Whytock's process was that the warp-threads were dyed and parti-coloured, in such a way that when woven the several points of colour formed the pattern of the whole fabric. Although the name tapestry " is used, the texture of these wares has but a remote likeness to that of hand-made tapestry hangings and carpets such as those of the Gobelins and Aubusson manufactories, no; is it the same as the texture of Brussels carpets. See also:Machine-made tapestry carpets are also called " ingrain " carpets, because the wool or worsted is dyed in the See also:grain, i.e. before manufactute. See also:Germany in her manufacture of carpets resorts chiefly to the " ingrain " process, but in common with See also:Holland and Belgium she produces pile (looped and cut) carpets from power-looms. In the United States of America there are many similar and very important carpet manufactories; and See also:Austria produces fine cut pile carpets (velcutes), the designs of which are largely derived from those of the Aubusson tapestry-woven carpets (tapis ras). Lengths or pieces of felt and other substantial material are frequently made for floor and See also:stair carpeting, and are often printed with patterns. These of course come into quite another class technically. The technological aspects of the several branches of carpet manufacture by machinery are treated in the articles on TEXTILE-See also:PRINTING and WEAVING. Briefly, the products of carpet manufacture practically fall into three main divisions: (1) Pile carpets (tapis moquettes) which are either looped (boucle) or cut (veloute); (2) flat surface carpets (tapis ras) as in hand tapestry-woven material; and (3) printed stuffs used for carpeting.

Whilst the See also:

production of carpets by steam power predomi- nates in Europe and the United States of America, and at one time appeared to be giving the coup de See also:grace to d hand -made the craft of making carpets by hand, there has been in carpets, recent times a revival in this latter, and many carpets of characteristic modern design, several of them made in England, are due to the influence of the See also:late William See also:Morris, who devoted much of his varied energies to tapestry weaving and pile carpet weaving by hand, both of which crafts are being fostered as cottage industries in parts of See also:Ireland, as well as in England. At the same time leading English carpet manufactures continue to produce hand-made carpets asoccasion requires. In France a much more systematic existence of tapestry weaving and pile carpet making by hand has been maintained and is of course attributable to the perennial activity of the state tapestry works in Paris (at the Gobelins workshops) and in Beauvais, and of corresponding works managed by private enterprise at Aubusson and elsewhere. Designing patterns for English carpet manufacture is now more organized than it was, and greater thought and invention are given to devising ornament suitable to the purpose of floor coverings. Before 185o and for a few years later, rather rude realistic representations of animals and botanical forms (decadent versions of Savonnerie designs) were often wrought in rugs and carpets, and survivals of these are still to be met with, but the lessons that have been subsequently derived fromintelligentstudy of Oriental designs have resulted in the definite designing of conventional forms for surface patterns. The early See also:movement in this direction owes much to the teaching of See also:Owen See also:Jones, and in its later and rather freer phases the Morris influence has been powerful. See also:Schools of art at Glasgow, at See also:Manchester, See also:Birmingham and elsewhere in the United Kingdom have trained and continue to See also:train designers, whose work has contributed to the formation of an English style with a new See also:note, which, as a French writer puts it, has created a sensation in France, in Germany, in fact in all Europe and America. France retains that facility of See also:execution and liveliness in invention which have been nurtured for over three hundred years by systematic. governmental solicitude for See also:education in decorative design and enterprise in perfecting manufacture. Her Aubusson and Savonnerie carpets have maintained a style of design. in See also:form and colour entirely different from any that clearly throws back to Oriental principles, and many of the designs for the finer and larger of these carpets are schemed with large central See also:oval panels, garlands of flowers and fantastic frames very much on the See also:plan of what is frequently to be seen in the decoration of ceilings. At the same time the style called fart nouveau has become developed. It largely grows from very fanciful dispositions of See also:free-growing natural forms, as well as curiously curved and tenuous forms, many of which are See also:bone-like and fibre-like in character, flat in treatment and rather thin and washy in colour, and its influence has slightly percolated into designs for pile carpets. This style, sometimes intermixed with the more robust, less fantastic and rather See also:fuller-coloured English style, has found followers in England, America and Germany, but the bulk of the designs now used in power carpet looms seems to be mainly of Oriental descent.

The more important art museums in Europe contain collections of Oriental carpets, and the history of many is fairly well established. The subject has become one of serious study, the results of which have been published and elucidated by means of well-executed coloured reproductions of carpets and rugs preserved in both public and private collections. which precedes by nine or ten years the more learned works by Riegl and Bode, there are two examples, one ascribed to the manufactory at Alcaraz in La See also:

Mancha, and one to the supposed manufactory of the 17th century at See also:Warsaw. By the light of later and more See also:complete investigations Mr See also:Robinson's ascriptions are scarcely See also:borne out. (7) Oriental Carpets, by See also:Herbert Coxon (London, 1884, 8vo). (8) Altorientalische Teppiche, by Alois Riegl (See also:Leipzig, 1891) ; a useful book of reference (containing See also:thirty-six illustrations) of manufacturing, archaeological and See also:artistic interest. (9) Jahrbuch der kunsthistorischen Sammlungen des Allerhochsten Kaiserhauses, vol. xiii. (Wien, 1892). Containing an important and finely illustrated article, ' Altere orientalische Teppiche aus den' Besitze des AllerhOchsten Kaiserhauses," by Alois Riegl, in the course of which comparisons are made between the designs in Persian MS. illustrations, in engraved metal work and those of carpets. (1o) Oriental Carpets, published by the See also:Austrian Commercial Museum (English edition by C. Purdon See also:Clarke) (See also:Vienna, 1892-1896). This contains a series of monographs by I.

M. Stockel, See also:

Smyrna; Dr William Bode, See also:Berlin; See also:Vincent Robinson, London; M. Gerspach, Paris; T. A. See also:Churchill, Tehran; Sir See also:George See also:Birdwood, London; C. Purdon Clarke, London; and Alois Riegl, Vienna, and a See also:preface by A, von Scala, Vienna. (II) Ancient Oriental Carpets, a supplement to the above, four parts containing twenty-five plates with See also:text (Leipzig, 1906, large See also:folio). (12) Vorderasiatische Knupfteppiche aus alterer Zeit, by Wilhelm Bode (Leipzig, 1901). This learned treatise gives inter alia suggestive notes upon the production of the so-called Polish carpets and of Spanish carpets. (13) Ein orientalischer Teppich vom Jahre 1202 and See also:die altesten orientalischen Teppiche, by Alois Riegl (Berlin, 1895). A coloured See also:illustration is given of a pile See also:curtain with a triple See also:niche design and an Armenian inscription that it was made by ' Gorzi the Artist " to the See also:glory of the church of St Hripsime—an Armenian See also:martyr. The date 651 appears in the inscription, but Riegl adduces valid reasons for See also:reading it as the See also:equivalent of A.D.

1202. Another pile carpet of conventional garden design, probably not of earlier manufacture than 14th century, is also illustrated and carefully discussed, especially in connexion with the appearance in it of well-authenticated See also:

Sassanid devices—streams with fishes and birds, &c. (14) See also:Report on Carpets at the Paris See also:Exhibition of 1900, by See also:Ferdinand Leborgne (1901, 8vo). (15) Oriental Rugs, by See also:John Kimberly Mumford (London, 1901), contains twenty-four colour-plate and autotype reproductions of rugs and eight photo-engravings of phases of the rug industry—amongst which latter are: " A See also:Nomad Studio," " Kurdish Girls at the Loom," " Boy Weavers of Tabriz," and a " Rug See also:Market in See also:Iran:" (16) Rugs, Oriental and Occidental, by See also:Rosa Belle See also:Holt (See also:Chicago, 1901), well illustrated, with colour-plate reproductions of various types of rugs, including less known Chinese and Navajo specimens. (17) The Art Workers' Quarterly; vol. iii. No. ri, See also:July 1904; article on the pile carpet belonging to the Worshipful Company of Girdlers of the City of London, by A. F. Kendrick, with a colour-plate of this remarkable carpet, made to the order of the master of the company in 1634 at Lahore. (18) See also:Journal of Indian Art and Industry Indian Carpets and Rugs (parts 87 to 94) (London, 1905 and 1906). Upwards of ninety-nine illustrations of many varieties of Indian and Persian carpets are given in this publication, a large number showing debased versions of fine designs, e.g. some from the Punjab, Warangal, Mirzapur and Elura; those from Yarkand exhibit Tatar and Chinese influences. (19) A History of Oriental Carpets before 1800, by F. R.

See also:

Martin, published by the State Printing See also:Office in Vienna (See also:Bernard See also:Quaritch, London, 1906). This contains a series of excellent reproductions in See also:colours of Oriental carpets, many of which, being presents to kings of See also:Sweden by the shah of Persia in the 17th century, are to be seen in the castles of Stock-holm and Copenhagen—others are in the Imperial Museum at Constantinople or belong to private owners. (A. S. C.) CARPET-BAGGER, a See also:political See also:slang See also:term for a See also:person who stands as a See also:candidate for See also:election in a locality in which he is a stranger. It is particularly used of such a candidate sent down by the central party organization. The term was first used in the western states of America of speculative bankers who were said to have started business with no other See also:property than what they could carry in a carpet-bag, and absconded when they failed. The term became of See also:general use in See also:American politics in the reconstruction period after the See also:Civil See also:War, as a term of contempt for the northern political adventurers in the South who, by the help of the See also:negro See also:vote, gained See also:control of the ad-ministration. CARPET-See also:KNIGHT, properly one who has been knighted in time of See also:peace on the carpet before the See also:king's See also:throne, and not on the field of See also:battle as an immediate See also:reward for valour. It. is used as a term of reproach for a soldier who stays at See also:home, and avoids active service and its hardships, with a particular reference to the carpet of a See also:lady's chamber, in which such a faineant soldier lingers.

End of Article: CARPET

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