[Illustration: FIG 4.--RUG MADE IN PERSIA IN THE MANNER OF TAPESTRY
WEAVING]
[Illustration: FIG. 5.--CARPET OF STOUT FLAX OR HEMP WOVEN AND THEN
COMPLETELY COVERED WITH ORNAMENT WORKED IN CLOSE NEEDLE STITCHES IN
COLOURED THREADS.]
History.
In connexion with the word "carpet" (Lat. _carpita_, rug; O. Fr.
_carpite_) notice may be taken of the Gr. [Greek: Tapaes] and the Lat.
_tapetium_, whence also comes the Fr. _tapis_ (the 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
special way, was, in later medieval times, indiscriminately applied to
them and to stuffs used as floor and seat coverings. From a very early
period classical writers make mention of them. In ancient Egypt, for
instance, floor and seat coverings were used in temples for religious
ceremonies by the priests of Amen Ra; later on they were used to
garnish the palaces of the Pharaohs. If one may judge from rare remains
of decorative textiles, in the museum at Cairo especially, dating from
at least 1480 B.C., such Egyptian fabrics were of linen inwoven with
coloured wools in a tapestry-weaving manner, and were not tufted or
piled textures. Taken from the palace at Nineveh is a large marble slab
carved in low relief with a geometrical pattern surrounded by a border
of lotus flowers and buds, evidently a copy of an Assyrian floor cover
or rug about 705 B.C., such as was also woven probably in the
tapestry-weaving manner. On the other hand, its design equally well
suggests patchwork--a method of needlework in vogue with Egyptians, at
least 900 years B.C., for ornamental purposes, as indicated by the
elaborately patterned canopy which covered the bier of an Egyptian
queen--the mother-in-law of Shishak who took Jerusalem some three or
four years after the 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
flat-textured and not piled fabrics. On the tomb of Cyrus was spread a
"covering of Babylonian tapestry, the carpets underneath of the finest
wrought purple" (Arrian vi. 29). Athenaeus (bk. v. ch. 27) gives from
Callixenus the Rhodian (c. 280 B.C.) an account of a banquet given by
Ptolemy Philadelphus at Alexandria, and describes "the purple carpets of
finest 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
appearance on both sides of the fabric. Of corresponding tapestry woven
work are Egypto-Roman specimens dating from the 2nd or 3rd century A.D.,
a considerable collection of which is in the Victoria and Albert Museum
at South Kensington. From about the same period date bits of hangings or
coverings woven in linen, over-wrought in a method of needlework with
ornament of compact loops of worsted (Plate I. figs, 1 and 2). These are
the earliest extant specimens of textiles presenting a tufted or piled
surface very kindred to that of woven 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 loom weavings
such as we find in 16th-century tufted or piled carpets.
Method of making piled carpets.
The simple traditional Oriental method of making these latter is briefly
as follows:--The foundation is a warp of strong cotton or hempen or
woollen or silk threads, the number of which is regulated by the breadth
of the carpet and the fineness or coarseness to be given to its pile.
Short lengths of coloured wool or goats' or camels' hair or silk are
knotted on to each of the warp threads so that the two ends of each
twist or tuft of coloured yarn, of whatever material it is, project in
front. Across the width of the warp and above the range of tufts a weft
thread is run in; another line or 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 blunt fork or rude comb-like 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 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 groups of
weavers. The 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 Turkish or
Ghiordes knot, from Ghiordes, an old city not far from Brusa. It is in
vogue principally throughout Asia Minor, as far east as Kurdistan and
the Caucasus, but it is also used farther south-east in parts of Persia
and 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
Persian or Sehna knot, which, though better calculated to produce a
close, 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
inch tied according to either the Turkish or Persian method is
determined by the 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 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 great cardboards, on which the stitches, or knots, are
indicated by squares each painted in its proper colour. In some of the
Persian carpets and rugs made at Sehna, Kirman and Tabriz, the warp is
of silk, a material that contributes to fine compact pile textures.
Date of original 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
fustian and velvet; while that of the finer Persian carpets, which were
not made much earlier than about the 15th century, is practically not
distinguishable from velvet, having long or heavy pile. Fustian, the
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 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 Europe not
much earlier than the 14th century, and various French church
inventories of the time contain entries of "_tapis velus_ (cut pile
carpets) _d'aultre mer, a mettre par terre_" (see _Essai sur l'histoire
des tapisseries et tapis_, by W. Chocqueel, 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 _pari passu._
Carpets with flat surface.
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 carpets (Plate II. fig. 5), the
ornament of which done in close needle stitches with coloured threads
completely conceals the stout flax or hemp web which is the essential
material of these carpets. Soumak is a distortion of Shernaka, a
Caucasian 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 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 Kashmir
shawls. Quilted and chain-stitched cotton prayer and bath rugs from
Persia are referred to in the article on 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 oldest of any historic process of
ornamental weaving (see TAPESTRY).
Motives in traditional designs in Oriental carpets.
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 the austerity of the Sunni or
orthodox Mahommedans in making patterns with abstract geometric and
angular forms, stiff interlacing devices, cryptic signs and symbols and
the like; whilst the other suggests the freer thought of the Shiah or
unorthodox sect, in designs of ingenious blossom and leafy scrolls,
conventional arabesques, botanical and animal forms, and cartouches
enclosing Kufic inscriptions (see the splendid example known as the
Ardebil carpet, Plate III. fig. 7, and another in Plate IV. fig. 9).
Types of the more austere design occur in carpets from Afghanistan,
Turkestan, Bokhara and Asia Minor, N.W. India and even Morocco, the
other types of freer design being almost special to Persian rugs and
carpets.
Indian 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 by the Mahommedans during the latter
part of the 14th century. But the industry did not apparently attain
importance until after the founding of the Mogul dynasty by Baber early
in the 16th century. The designs mainly derived from those of Persian
carpets of that period do not as a rule rise to the excellence of their
prototypes. Historical centres of Indian carpet making are in Kashmir,
the Punjab and Sind, and at Agra, Mirzapur, Jubbulpore, Warangal in the
Deccan, Malabar and Masulipatam. Velvets are richly embroidered in gold
and silver thread at Benares and Murshidabad and used as ceremonial
carpets, and silk pile carpets are made at Tanjore and 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 craft in their dwellings and palaces. These
groups of highly skilled workers as part of the household staff were
paid fixed salaries, but they were also allowed to execute private
orders. During the 19th century the carpet industry was developed in
government gaols. Produced in great quantities the prison-made carpets
as a rule are less well turned out, and the competition, set up between
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 blue and
white or blue and red stripes in the simplest way. These are called
_daris_ and _satranjis_, and are made chiefly in Benares and northern
India. They are also made in the south and by such aborigines retaining
primitive habits as the Todas of the Nilgiri Hills, a fact which points
to the age of this particular method of making ground or floor
coverings.
Condition controlling designs of Oriental Carpets.
A condition that has always controlled the designs of Oriental carpets
is their rectangular shape, more often oblong than square. As a rule,
there is a well-schemed border, enclosing the main portion or field over
which the details of the pattern are symmetrically distributed. Simpler
patterns in the field of a carpet or rug consist of repetitions of the
same 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 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 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 stem designs or "arabesques" are details many of which have
been derived on the one hand from Sassanian and even from far earlier
Mesopotamian emblematical ornament based on cheetahs seizing gazelles,
on floral forms, blossoms and buds so well conventionalized in Assyrian
decoration, and on the other hand from Tatar and Chinese sources. The
style, strong in suggestion of successive historical periods, seems to
have been matured in Mosil engraved and damascened 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 good
deal earlier than this period are carpets designed chiefly according to
the simpler taste of the Sunnites, and such as these appear to be
mentioned by Marco Polo (1256-1323) when writing that "in Turcomania
they weave the handsomest carpets in the world." He quotes Conia (Konieh
in Anatolia), Savast (Sivas in Asia Minor), some 300 m. north-east of
Konieh, and Cassaria (Kaisaria or Caesaraea in Anatolia) as the 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.
Carpets in Europe.
Entries of Oriental carpets are frequent in the inventories of European
cathedral treasures. In England, for instance, carpets are said to have
been first employed by Queen Eleanor of Castile and her suite during the
latter part of the 13th century, who had them from Spain, where their
manufacture was apparently carried on by Saracens or Moors in the
southern part of the country. On the other hand, Pierre Dupont, a master
carpet-maker of the Savonnerie (see below), gives his opinion in 1632
that the introduction of carpet-making into France was due to the
Saracens after their defeat by Charles Martel in A.D. 726. But more
historically precise is the record in the book of crafts (_Livre des
metiers_) by Etienne Boileau, provost of the merchants in Paris
(1258-1268), of "the tapicers or makers of _tapis sarrasinois_,[1] who
say that their craft is for the service only of churches or great men
like kings and nobles." In the 13th and 14th centuries Saracen weavers
of rich and ornamental stuffs were also employed at Venice, which was a
chief centre for importing Oriental goods, including carpets, and
distributing them through western Europe. Dr Bode, in his
_Vorderasiatische Knupfteppiche_, 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 (1480) and others.
Of greater interest perhaps, and especially as throwing light upon the
trade, in, 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 foreign
workmen, especially Flemings, were from early times often encouraged to
settle in order to develop industries, amongst which pile carpet-making
probably and tapestry-weaving certainly were included. The earliest
record of tapestry-weaving works in England is that of William Sheldon's
at Barcheston, Warwickshire, in 1509, and, besides wall hangings,
carpets of tapestry-weaving were also possibly made there.[2] The cut
pile carpet belonging to Lord Verulam (Plate III. fig. 6) was perhaps
made at Norwich. It has a repeating and simply contrived continuous
pattern of carnations and intertwining stems with a large lozenge in the
centre bearing the royal arms of England with the letters E.R.
(Elizabeth Regina) and the date 1570. It also has the arms of the
borough of Ipswich and those of the 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 common to many Asia Minor and Spanish
carpets (see Plate I. fig. 3, Plate II. fig. 4, and Plate IV. fig. 10);
not, however, to the 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 star devices, rather Moorish in
style, with the inscription on one end of the border, "Feare God and
Keep His Commandments, made in the yeare 1603," and in the field the
shield of arms of Sir Edward Apsley of Thakeham, Sussex, impaling those
of his wife, Elizabeth Elmes of Lifford, Northamptonshire. This may have
been made in England. A carpet of very similar design, especially in its
border, is to be seen in a painting by Marc Gheeraedts of the conference
at old Somerset House of English and Spanish plenipotentiaries (1604),
now in the National Portrait Gallery, London. A more important and
finer carpet belongs to the Girdlers' Company (Plate IV. fig. 8), and
is of Persian design, into which are introduced the arms of the company,
shields with eagles, and white panels with English letters, the monogram
of Robert Bell the master in 1634, but this was made at Lahore[3] to his
order.
Spanish carpets.
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 design; the making of them dates at least from the
end of the 15th century or the beginning of the 16th century. It is only
within 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 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. 10.
The inner repeating pattern has suggestions of a lingering Moorish
influence, but a superior version of it with better definition is to be
seen in extant bits of Spanish shuttle-woven silks of the 16th century.
The border of distorted dragon-like creatures is of a Renaissance style,
and this style is more pronounced in other Spanish carpets having
borders of poorly treated Italian 16th-century pilaster ornament. Beside
cut pile, many Spanish carpets of the 17th and 18th centuries have
looped and flat surfaces, and bear Spanish names and inscriptions; many
too are of needlework in tent or cross stitch.