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[Illustration: BRITISH FINE WILTON CARPET
After the Ardebit carpet (Victoria and Albert Museum).
_Frontispiece_]
PITMAN’S COMMON COMMODITIES AND INDUSTRIES
CARPETS
BY
R. S. BRINTON
LONDON
SIR ISAAC PITMAN & SONS, LTD., 1 AMEN CORNER, E.C.4
BATH, MELBOURNE AND NEW YORK
PREFACE.
IN treating of carpet manufacture, which involves the employment of
looms and other machinery of a complicated nature, I was confronted with
the problem, how far it was necessary or desirable to explain and
illustrate mechanical devices. Upon consideration, it seemed advisable,
having regard to the scope of the book, to avoid as far as possible both
descriptions and diagrams of a mechanical nature. A certain standard of
mechanical intelligence is assumed in the reader; but this work, like
the rest of the series, is intended for the layman; and it is impossible
to describe and explain detailed mechanical movements except at
considerable length and with the aid of elaborate diagrams. Those who
wish to study the technique of the subject in detail are referred to Mr.
Fred Bradbury’s book, _Carpet Manufacture_ (F. King & Sons, Ltd.,
Halifax, 1904), which, though it has not been brought up to date, is a
classic for the trade, as all experts are aware. I am indebted to him
for the use of several blocks.
I have also to acknowledge the courtesy of the Gresham Publishing Co.,
Ltd., of Chandos Street, Covent Garden, for permission to use a number
of blocks from their _Textile Industries_, which contains some admirable
chapters on Carpet Manufacture.
My thanks are further due to _The Times_ for permission to utilise some
contributions I made to their “Textile Supplement,” published in 1913;
while I have received information and helpful criticism from Messrs.
Woodward, Grosvenor & Co., Ltd., Messrs. T. & A. Naylor, Ltd., The
Victoria Carpet Co., not to mention colleagues and foremen of my own
Company, Brintons Limited.
For the historical chapter I am indebted to Mr. A. C. Parry, and for
particulars of Carpet Trades Unions to Mr. E. Stradling, Mr. Ellis
Crowther, and Mr. T. Lindsay.
I am conscious of the possibility of errors and omissions, and I should
be grateful for any intimation of such, with the view of making the
necessary corrections, if a further edition should be required.
R. S. BRINTON.
CROFT HOUSE,
KIDDERMINSTER,
1919.
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
PREFACE iii
I. HISTORY 1
II. MATERIALS 9
III. DYEING 13
IV. HAND-MADE CARPETS 20
V. BRUSSELS CARPETS 29
VI. WILTON CARPETS 44
VII. AXMINSTER CARPETS 49
VIII. CHENILLE CARPETS 63
IX. TAPESTRY CARPETS 71
X. INGRAIN CARPETS 86
XI. DESIGN AND COLOUR 92
XII. STATISTICS 104
XIII. EMPLOYERS AND EMPLOYED 107
XIV. CONCLUSION 119
INDEX 123
ILLUSTRATIONS
FIG. PAGE
BRITISH FINE WILTON CARPET _Frontispiece_
1. TURKISH, KNOT 21
2. LONGITUDINAL SECTION THROUGH HEALDS, 33
HARNESS, SLEY, AND FABRIC
3. SECTION OF FIVE-FRAME BRUSSELS CARPET 35
4. SECTION OF THREE-FRAME BRUSSELS CARPET 36
5. AND 5A. CHLIDEMA SQUARE 41
6. SECTION OF FIVE-FRAME WILTON 45
7. SECTION OF IMPERIAL AXMINSTER—3-SHOT 51
8. SECTION OF AXMINSTER—3-SHOT 52
9. SECTIONS OF AXMINSTER WEAVES 53
10. TUFTING MECHANISM 55
11. CHENILLE DESIGN PAPER CUT UP 64
12. CHENILLE CLOTH 65
13. TRANSVERSE SECTION SHOWING FUR INSERTED 65
14. SECTION OF CHENILLE AXMINSTER 67
15. DESIGN OF TAPESTRY CARPET 72
16. DESIGN IN FIG. 15 ELONGATED AS PRINTED 73
17. PRINTING DRUM 76
18. SCALE AND DESIGN BOARD COMBINED 78
19. A SCRAPER 80
20. PRINTED THREADS SET FOR WINDING ON TO 81
THE BEAM
21. FIG. 20 AS WOVEN 82
22. STRUCTURE OF TAPESTRY CARPET 82
23. MEDIUM TAPESTRY CARPET 83
24. TAPESTRY VELVET—3-SHOT 83
25. TAPESTRY VELVET 84
26. TAPESTRY VELVET—2 SHOTS IN THE GROUND 84
27. TWO-PLY IN WARP AND WEFT 86
28. TWO-PLY WARP AND WEFT 88
29. THREE-PLY WARP AND TWO-PLY WEFT 88
30. THREE-PLY WARP AND WEFT 89
CARPETS
CHAPTER I
HISTORY
BEFORE the mechanical processes involved in the manufacture of carpets
to-day are described, a short sketch of the history of the fabric and
the story of its introduction into this country may be of interest. The
origin of the weaver’s loom, like that of the potter’s wheel, dates back
to the prehistoric times. A loom with its workers is shown in an ancient
Egyptian fresco, the date of which is reckoned by antiquarians to be
about 3,000 years before the Christian Era. In the grottoes of
Benihassan, both spinners and weavers are shown, the weavers working on
cloths both plain and of a checked pattern; and both perpendicular and
horizontal looms are represented. There were, however, other
civilisations beside the Egyptian; and the origin of the carpet must be
sought still further to the East, in places where, in spite of the ebb
and flow of conquests, it is still made at the present day.
Mention is frequently found in ancient records of history of rich
hangings, coverings, fine cloths and tapestries, generally the booty of
some conqueror; but it is difficult to tell whether some fabric used
exclusively as the carpet of to-day is used is included in these lists.
The ancient equivalent of the modern carpet or rug was known to the
Babylonians, who were, according to Pliny, skilful weavers; and its
manufacture was carried on at an early date among the Assyrians and
Persians, in China and India, and among the Arabs.
The original purpose of the carpet in the East was probably the same in
the beginning as it is there, now, at the present day. It was used to
give colour to the temple, as a hanging for the tents, a trapping for
the saddle, a sitting place for the guest, for a covering of the ground
on which to sleep or pray; and its manufacture in any district implied a
certain degree of civilisation and luxury.
The use of a woven floor-covering seems to be indicated in passages in
Homer; and the well-known authority, Sir George Birdwood, cites an
account of a banquet given at Alexandria in the third century before the
Christian Era by Ptolemy Philadelphus, at which Persian rugs were spread
in the King’s tent. Persian carpets were highly valued, and were
exported to Greece, and at a later date to Rome. Themistocles, according
to Plutarch, “likened a man’s discourse to a rich Persian carpet, the
beautiful figures and patterns of which can be shown only by spreading
and extending it out; when it is contracted and folded up, they are
obscured and lost.”
The conquests of Alexander the Great, which extended as far as India,
seem to have made the use of the products of the Eastern looms familiar
among the Greeks. At a later date the conquests made by the Roman
Consuls spread the arts of the East still further into Europe. At a
later period still the taking of Constantinople by the Turks drove many
skilful artificers to take up their residence in Italy at Venice, Genoa,
and Florence, and at some towns in France; and from these centres
carpets were still further distributed over Europe.
The Crusades brought England into touch with the East; and specimens of
carpet were probably introduced by returning knights and their
followers; but it is through Spain, a country which acquired the art
from the Moors, that they are first known to have come, Queen Eleanor of
Castille and her suite introducing them into this country on her
marriage to Edward I. Illustrations of carpets are shown in pictures of
the time of Henry VIII; and in the time of Elizabeth they were probably
in more general use in England than most writers on the subject are
accustomed to allow; for direct communication with the East had been
opened up by the fearless and enterprising traders and adventurers of
those times. In Hakluyt’s _Voyages_ there are the following instructions
to a trader about to journey to Persia—
“In Persia you shall finde carpets of course thrummed wooll, the best of
the world, and excellently coloured; those cities and townes you most
repaire to, and you must use meanes to learne all the order of the dying
of those thrummes, which are so died as neither raine, wine, nor yet
vinegar can staine; and if you may attaine to that cunning you shall not
need to feare dying of clothe. For if the colour holde in yarne and
thrumme, it will holde much better in cloth. Learne you there to fixe
and make sure the colour to be given by logge wood; so shall we not need
to buy wood so deare to the enriching of our enemies. Enquire the price
of leckar, and all other things belonging to dying. If before you
returne you could procure a single good workeman in the arte of Turkish
carpet making you should bringe the arte into this Realme, and also
thereby increase worke to your company.”
Hakluyt’s praise of the Persian carpets was not undeserved, for their
manufacture in his time had reached a period of excellence as regards
design and workmanship which it has been from time to time the aim of
modern manufacturers to reproduce, as far as the conditions and
requirements of the present day permit. Many of the best specimens in
the museums and collections of New York, London, Vienna, and Paris are
attributed to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. When Hakluyt wrote
there was in existence a carpet at the Mosque of Ardebil, in North-West
Persia, which is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum. The date of this
carpet is 1540, and experts agree that it belongs to the best period of
Persian carpet weaving.
There is, unfortunately, no record whether the efforts of Hakluyt and
the merchant adventurers of his time to obtain weavers from Turkey or
Persia were successful. Carpets do not find a place among the goods to
be especially sought after by their agents. As far back as the reign of
Henry VIII we read of Cardinal Wolsey obtaining carpets through the
Venetian Ambassador; and in that reign Richard Sheldon lent his house to
a weaver named Richard Hicks, who produced among other fabrics woven
maps of Worcestershire and Oxfordshire, specimens of which are still in
existence.
In France, Henry IV gave assistance for the manufacture of carpets, and
in 1604 there was a strong guild of carpet weavers; but it was not until
the reign of Louis XIV that the manufacture was revived at Aubusson and
established at Beauvais. The industry had the direct patronage of the
French King, and some celebrated fabrics were made. The Revocation, in
1685, of the Edict of Nantes, which for a time had given protection to
the Protestants of France, drove a large number of French and Walloon
artisans into England and Germany; and the spinning and weaving were
among the many industries in this country to be benefited by this influx
of skilful workers.
In 1701 the carpet weavers of Wilton and Axminster received a charter;
but even at an earlier date the manufacture of carpets had been carried
on at these places. Both these towns have given their names to distinct
fabrics that are now made in many places and countries. Carpet
manufacture is no longer carried on at Axminster, where it flourished
for about a century; and other places, like Fulham, Moorfields, Exeter,
and Frome, where early attempts were made to establish the industry,
have long ceased to have any connection with carpet making.
About the year 1740, the Earl of Pembroke brought over weavers from
France and introduced into Wilton the making of loop-pile or Brussels
carpeting. This was followed in due course by the development of the
cut-pile fabric which took its name from the place.
About the year 1736 the weaving of carpets seems to have been
established at Kidderminster, a town which had been connected with the
weaving of broadcloth and “flowered stuff” from as far back as the reign
of Henry VIII. When the art was first introduced, what is now called
Scotch or Kidderminster carpet was made on the old hand-loom; the
process of weaving was slow and laborious, and required a man and a boy
to each loom. In 1745, Mr. Broom started the manufacture of Wilton and
Brussels carpets in the town, bringing over weavers from Tournai. In
1772 the number of carpet looms in the town was 250, and the trade
extended to other places in the North of England and Scotland. In 1830
there were nearly 1,100 looms in Kidderminster, and a considerable home
and foreign trade had been established. A Parliamentary Paper of that
date gave the consumption of wool in the weaving of carpets as one
twenty-eighth of the whole quantity of wool produced in the Kingdom.
In 1757, Mr. Thomas Moore started the manufacture of carpets in London,
and obtained a premium from the Society of Arts for the best imitation
of Turkey carpets.
As far back as 1778 there was a trade to some extent at Kilmarnock. The
original fabric was the two-ply Scotch or Kidderminster carpet. In 1824,
an engineer of Kilmarnock introduced the three-ply Scotch carpet, a
fabric of three layers of different colours, each of which is brought to
the surface according to design; while about the same time Brussels and
Velvet pile were also introduced into Scotland. In 1831, the Trustees
for Manufactures in Scotland awarded the prize for four Turkey carpets,
the first of that type made in Scotland.
In the last quarter of the eighteenth century the inventions of
Arkwright had been applied to the woollen and worsted industries.
Boulton and Watts had put their steam engine on a practical footing,
while Cartwright had made a power-loom for the weaving of calico, and
had also patented a wool-combing machine. In France, Jacquard was
perfecting a device which, when adapted to the carpet loom, was to play
an important part in the development of the industry.
From the beginning of the nineteenth century, progress, in spite of
occasional checks due to general economic conditions, was well
maintained; and by the year 1825 the Jacquard mechanism was beginning to
replace, both in England and Scotland, the old and complicated harness
of the hand-loom. A great increase of trade followed its adoption.
Two other important inventions, which had a great influence in extending
the scope of the trade, were developed in the thirties of the last
century. The one was the development of the tapestry process of printing
and weaving carpets by Mr. Whytock, of Edinburgh and Glasgow. This
process enabled a greater range of colours to be used than was
previously possible, and also allowed a cheaper fabric to be produced.
After initial opposition, the process was developed in Scotland; and
finally, about the year 1842, Halifax became the centre of the Tapestry
weaving. Firms in other towns were licensed, and the process was so
widely taken up that in 1850 there were 1,299 Tapestry hand-looms at
work in England and Scotland, as against 2,500 hand Brussels looms. The
other notable invention was that of Mr. James Templeton, of Glasgow, who
in 1839 patented a novel device for the manufacture of patent Axminster
carpets by a two-fold process. This also admitted of a large range of
shades. The invention has since been considerably developed, and has
contributed largely to the extension of the carpet industry.
From small beginnings, early in the nineteenth century the manufacture
of carpets had grown in the course of 50 years to an important industry
in the United States, and was well established in Philadelphia and other
centres. Both in England and America the most able inventors had turned
their attention to the problem of weaving by power. Mr. Collier, who had
been successful in weaving linen by power, produced, in conjunction with
Messrs. Crossley, of Halifax, a loom for the weaving of Tapestry and
Brussels. The problem had, however, been solved by Mr. E. P. Bigelow, in
America, and the Bigelow patent was acquired by Messrs. Crossley. The
introduction of the power-loom created a great change in the industry.
The transition period from hand-weaving to power-weaving was a period of
anxiety to manufacturers and of privation to the old hand-loom weavers;
but the situation was everywhere faced, and from the first introduction
of power-loom weaving ever-increasing quantities of carpets have been
woven, both for home consumption and for export. In the seventies of the
last century another step forward was the remarkable invention of the
Moquette or Royal Axminster loom by Alexander Smith & Sons, of Yonkers,
N.Y. This loom was introduced to England by Messrs. Tomkinson & Adam, of
Kidderminster; and the invention has caused a still further extension of
the carpet trade both at home and abroad.