English Carpet

English Carpet
General information
Name	English Carpet
Original name	فرش انگلستان، قالی انگلستان
Alternative name(s)	English Rug
Origin	England
Technical information
Pile material	Wool
Foundation material	Cotton, Wool
Knot type	Symmetrical (Turkish)

English Carpet or English Rug is one of the western rugs that woven in England.
The earliest English hand-knotted rug dates from 1570. Most early hand-knotted and needlework rugs were copies of Turkish designs. Some early rugs were hand-knotted on a flax foundation. Early rugs were commissioned with armorial bearings. In the seventeenth century heavy, flatwoven carpets were produced in Kidderminster (Worcestershire) and Wilton (Wiltshire). Looms for weaving hand-knotted rugs, based on Brussels models, were set up in Wilton in 1720. In the late eighteenth century, Thomas Whitty began weaving hand-knotted rugs in Axminster. Designs incorporated Adam and Greco-Roman motifs. In the nineteenth century, production of hand-knotted carpets declined as powerloomed production of tufted carpets developed.

History

England (Great Britain) England is part of the island nation of Great Britain, located off the northwestern coast of mainland Europe and east of Ireland. The United Kingdom is composed of the island of Great Britain—which contains England in the south, Wales in the west, and Scotland in the north—and Northern Ireland, located in the northeast corner of the island of Ireland.
England was mostly an agricultural country, and demand for rugs was generally weak until the mid-fourteenth century. It is believed that Queen Eleanor of Castile (1241-1290) brought numerous rugs from her homeland of Spain to England in the thirteenth century after her marriage to King Edward I (r. 1272-1307). Many of these rugs were exclusively from Granada, Spain, and they created great interest in England, as pile carpets, rich in design and color, were practically unknown there at that time.
During the reign of King Henry VIII (r. 1509-1547) rugs began to be imported from Anatolia (Turkey), Persia, and workshops in continental Europe. Rugs were still considered rare and costly luxuries but were gradually being acquired for churches and royal castles. During this period Henry VIII was famously painted standing on an Ushak rug by Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-1543).
As far back as the tenth century CE, embroidery was an English pastime for female nobility and nuns. Under Queen Elizabeth I's monarchy (r. 1558-1603), weavers were brought to England from established weaving districts in France and mainland Europe and possibly as far away as Persia. English rugs were woven following the techniques used in Oriental rug-making, but the designs and coloration often were in keeping with English embroidery styles. During this period, Needlepoint weavings became popular and were generally made in households as floor coverings, upholstery, woven bags, and decoration.
An important turning point in the development of the English carpet weaving industry surprisingly occurred in France. In 1685 the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes under King Louis XIV (r. 1643-1715) caused many highly skilled weavers and knowledgeable Protestant workers at Aubusson and Savonnerie Royal Manufactory to immigrate to England because of its religious tolerance toward Protestants. During the reign of King James II of England (r. 1685-1688) French-born residents were free to set up looms and continue their craft; many weavers settled in southern England and assisted in establishing a carpet weaving industry of high standards.
The Wilton Royal Carpet Manufactory, which was established in the southern England town of Wilton in 1655 under the patronage of the Earl of Pembroke and had become very successful by the early eighteenth century, was granted its first Royal Charter under King William III (r. 1689-1702). The Royal Charter, granted in 1699, protected the factory from competition and guarded experienced and talented workers from being poached by rival weaving establishments. This tactic, also used in France, ensured that factories were able to maintain excellent standards of beauty and weaving quality for decades. The carpets manufactured in Wilton were popular, and the protection against competition increased Wilton carpet demand in England and abroad.
During the mid-eighteenth century other carpet weaving factories began to flourish in England as demand increased throughout the Empire. Commercial operations emerged, such as Axminster Carpet Manufactory, Exeter Manufactory, Fulham Carpet Manufactory, Kidderminster Carpets, Moor-Fields Carpet Manufactory, and Paddington Carpet Workshop. In 1757 both Thomas Whiny (of Axminster) and Thomas Moore (of Moorfields) won prizes in the Royal Society of Arts competition for carpet manufacturing, which was organized to create a high design standard for carpets woven in England.
At the turn of the nineteenth century English carpets continued to be commissioned for the aristocracy and nobility of England and abroad. At the same time, machine-made rugs began to be widely produced for the middle class, which in turn made them more affordable and available. In 1835 the successful Axminster Manufactory closed after a major fire destroyed its weaving operations. The Wilton Royal Carpet Manufactory took over its remaining looms and employed numerous Axminster weavers, relocating them to Wilton.
Toward the middle of the nineteenth century heavy competition from Oriental and European weaving countries decreased the demand for English carpets. But by the late 187os the Arts and Crafts movement, led by William Morris, reinvigorated the handmade carpet industry in England. Morris's carpet designs for his firm Morris & Company were highly original and gained popularity for merging English floral motifs with Oriental-inspired designs. His company would continue to produce carpets into the twentieth century.
Morris & Company carpets saw competition from handwoven carpets that began to be produced in Ireland in the late nineteenth century. Alexander Morton & Company, a Scottish textile manufacturer, established looms in the mostly agricultural county of Donegal to create a less-expensive alternative to William Morris's successful Arts and Crafts Carpets. Donegal carpets were subsidized by the British government, and cheaper Irish labor was used to manufacture carpets of good quality, coloration, and design. Donegal carpet production was highly successful as a result, and it attracted acclaimed designers to contribute to the carpet styles and motifs.
Early carpets from England are important and are appreciated by interior designers and their discerning clients in the world market. English carpets mainly have a cotton foundation, although some early examples have a wool or hemp foundation; a combination of wool with either a hemp, linen, or jute weft was also used. The pile is made of wool. The Turkish (symmetric) knot is used. English carpets are made in all grade qualities. The dimensions range from approximately nine feet by six feet to palace sizes. A small percentage of scatter rugs up to six feet by four feet, runners, and gallery formats were also made.

Bibliography

• Abraham Levi Moheban. 2015. The Encyclopedia of Antique Carpets: Twenty-Five Centuries of Weaving. NewYork: Princeton Architectural Press.
• Peter F. Stone. 2013. Oriental Rugs: An Illustrated Lexicon of Motifs, Materials, and Origins. North Clarendon: Tuttle.