love-song of this land has praised the skill of the woman deftly plying
the hand loom. But if one expects to see the glory of ancient Greece, in
its perfection of form and design, transmitted in any degree to the
industry of modern rug-weaving he will be disappointed. From time
immemorial rugs have constituted a most important part of the dowry of a
young girl from the provinces. Even now the courting of a bride in Crete
is often prefaced with the question whether the girl is skilled in the
handling of a loom. But the modern Greek rug is seldom seen outside of
its own country, for it is generally made for home use, and the weaver
is not easily induced to part with it. Besides this, the foreign market
would not be large for them, especially in competition with the
well-known and excellent Oriental rugs.
Greek rugs are of two kinds--the heavy ones which serve for floor
coverings in the winter, and the thinner, which are used all the year
round. Both are made of home-produced wool, often with hemp woof, and
are worked by women and girls only, in wooden looms of a primitive
order.
Athens is the only place in Greece where rugs are produced in a factory.
Under the patronage of Her Majesty the Queen, an Association for the
Education of Poor Women exists. This philanthropic association has
founded an industrial institution which employs four hundred women and
girls in its various departments, of whom about thirty are engaged in
rug-weaving. The best rugs are those purely Grecian in design and
quality, and for these special orders are generally sent in. The rugs
thus woven are durable and effective. Sometimes an attempt is made to
imitate Turkish rugs, but without their superb effect. Coarse rugs of an
inferior class are sold in the bazaars of Athens. The predominant color
in these is a dingy white, with stripes of various colors at the ends.
The rug is really durable, though the noticeable, fuzzy nap soon wears
off.
MOORISH AND SPANISH RUGS
The Arab conquerors of Spain, or the Moors as they are often called, are
believed to have taught the Spaniards and Venetians the art of
rug-weaving. The rugs now known as Moorish are made by the descendants
of this race. Their leading color is yellow, and in style and quality
they resemble the so-called Smyrna rug. Antique Moorish rugs are found
in the cathedrals of Toledo and Seville. These are relics of the
thirteenth century and have geometric designs.
_Morocco_ rugs are Moorish. Those of modern manufacture are very
inferior. The poorest aniline dyes are used, and it seems hardly
possible that the splendid specimens of the fourteenth to the end of the
seventeenth century were woven in Morocco. But the rugs in the Sultan's
palace at Fez prove this fact, as does the splendid antique rug in the
possession of Prince Schwarzenberg, at Vienna. Fez was formerly one of
the chief seats of the rug industry, which is now limited mostly to
Rabat. Unfortunately, aniline dyes are now largely used, and even the
designs are less artistic than in former years. There is, however, a rug
not known to the trade, and only rarely met with outside its home. It is
the _Tuareg_ rug, and is woven by the Berbers, a tribe occupying the
desert south of Algeria and Tunis, and known as Tuareg or Tawarek by the
Arabs. The Tuaregs are great traders, and control the principal caravan
routes. Their rugs are woven by the women, and seldom if ever leave the
families which weave them. The most beautiful are used as shrouds, and
are buried with their owners.
_Tunis_ sends out a few rugs woven at Kairuan. They are thick, heavy,
but inferior in many ways to rugs of Oriental workmanship.
BOSNIAN, SERVIAN, ROUMANIAN, AND BULGARIAN RUGS
Bosnian rugs in olden times were sometimes very fine. Then came years of
general depression, when the industry of weaving fell into decay.
Finally the Austro-Hungarian administration was established at Bosnia,
and new life was given to the work. Looms were erected by the
Government, and a number of women were sent to Vienna, where they were
taught the art of weaving. Returning to Bosnia, they were able to impart
to others the knowledge they had gained, and thus the work prospered. To
enhance further the value of these rugs, the latest designs in the old
Bosnian rugs were selected, and by the harmonious blending of these with
new designs and colors, modern rugs were made, which show decided
improvement.
_Servian_ rugs are woven throughout all Servia, but the principal seat
of the industry is at Pirot, on the southern boundary of the Balkan
Mountains. The rugs are of wool, and the best are very durable. The dyes
are generally vegetable, the weaving is a home industry, and the designs
are all worked on a black or red ground. The preferment in the modern
rug is for red, but the older rugs had the black ground. The general
design is an extended square, in the centre of which is a panel. The
rest of the field is filled with stripes and geometrical forms in rather
bright and varied coloring.
_Roumanian_ rugs of modern make are quite inferior. They are woven on
ordinary hand looms in the villages and towns among the mountains of
Roumania. They are coarse, and the designs are in stripes, zigzag lines,
or straight-lined figures. Occasionally flower designs have appeared,
but these have been poorly reproduced, and in the most unsuitable
combinations of color. Old Roumanian rugs are not in the market. They
are owned by private individuals, and are not to be procured except at
very high prices, if at all. These rugs differ from the modern ones in
their better workmanship and designs.
_Bulgarian_ rugs, as a rule, are very coarse in texture, loosely woven,
and unattractive. Occasionally Bulgarian rugs are seen with finer
weaving and well-chosen colors. Both men and women take part in
preparing the wool, the former setting up the simple looms, preparing
the darker dyes, and arranging the warp. The women choose the designs
and colors, and weave the rugs. The colors commonly used are yellow,
blue, brown, black, white, green, and red.
ENGLISH RUGS
In England the introduction of tapestries as hangings for walls was made
by Eleanora, sister of Alfonso the Tenth of Castile, when she became the
wife of Edward the First. In her journeyings these fabrics of the loom
were carried as part of the royal baggage, and must have given some
sense of cheer, particularly when they clothed the bare walls of the
dreary castle of Cærnarvon.
Edward the Third (1327-1377) invited Flemish weavers to settle in
England. At that time England produced wool in large quantities,
although very few fabrics were woven there, nine-tenths of the wool
being sent to Ghent or Bruges to be manufactured; for the Flemish were
the first people in the northern part of Europe who advanced in the arts
and in manufactures. Throughout Northern and Western Europe rugs were
seldom used, except for wall hangings and table covers, until the time
of the Reformation in Germany.
Great Britain is now quite active in the manufacture of rugs with
certain designs, a decided impetus to the improvement of this industry
being given by Mr. William Morris, the English poet and artistic
decorator, who was born near London in 1834.
[Illustration: EARLY ENGLISH RUG
_Centre portion of a carpet woven in wool, with a continuous pattern of
carnations, and a border of wavy floral design. In the diamond-shaped
panel of the centre are the Royal Arms and the letters E R (Elizabeth
Regina)._
OWNED BY THE RT. HON. THE EARL OF VERULAM.]
_The Morris Rug._ With strong, firm texture, fine vegetable dyes, and
with purely artistic designs, the Morris rug bears testimony to-day to
the honesty, perseverance, and skill of the man for whom it is named. He
himself testifies: "I am an artist or workman with a strong inclination
to exercise what capacities I may have--a determination to do nothing
shabby if I can help it." Decorative art in many branches is the richer
to-day for the influence of Mr. Morris, but it is his rug-making that
now claims attention. Mr. Bernhard Quaritch informs me in a letter dated
August 31, 1899, that Mr. Morris learned the art of making rugs from a
volume of the work entitled "Descriptions des Arts et Metiers." Mr.
Morris had his own loom, and not only wove rugs, but dyed the wool for
them himself, and instructed pupils, to whom his inspiration was a
power. Long and laboriously he worked to achieve the best results, using
vegetable dyes only, and he was finally successful. No dyer of the
Orient could have been more pleased than was he when his efforts
resulted in soft, glowing tints.
In design Mr. Morris excelled. He educated the popular taste by bringing
forth the beauties of the simpler forms of the floral and vegetable
world; he delighted especially in displaying the acanthus in varied
conventional forms. Every rug he designed bears witness to his
enthusiasm for harmony. Too æsthetic, some critics declare him to have
been; but no one can deny the importance of his creations, for England
needed to be awakened to a knowledge of her own inability to appreciate
artistic decoration of the home, especially by means of the productions
of the loom. It was this very fact, and his inability to procure
artistic furniture such as would satisfy his æsthetic taste, that
started Mr. Morris to create those fabrics which he desired.
FRENCH RUGS
The art of rug-weaving was first introduced into the West by the Moors
when they conquered Spain. With the advance of civilization it proceeded
to the land of the Gauls, where during the reign of Henry the Fourth it
was brought from Persia. An inventor named Dupont was placed in charge
of a workroom by the King, in the _Palais du Louvre_ about the year
1605. In the year 1621 an apprentice of Dupont's, named Lourdes, was
instructed to establish the industry of weaving in a district near
Paris, where was the _Hospice de la Savonnerie_, an institution for poor
children. The factory was called _La Savonnerie_ because the building
had been previously used for the manufacture of soap. Since 1825 _La
Savonnerie_ has been consolidated with the Gobelins manufactory. In
1664, Colbert, minister to Louis the Fourteenth, founded the
establishment at Beauvais which is owned by the French Government, as is
also that of the Gobelins, which Colbert bought of the Gobelin family.
But it is to the Saracens that France ultimately owes the origin of her
famous tapestries, and it is to the Saracens, through France, that
Western and Northern Europe trace their obligation.
The industry has attained large proportions in France. At Aubusson alone
over two thousand work-men are employed in rug-weaving. A fine specimen
of the work done there is a rug of Oriental design made for a collector
in New York. The piece-work system is now generally used throughout the
weaving districts of France. The manufacturers themselves usually place
the rugs on the market. France buys the greater quantity, although many
are exported.
Austria-Hungary, Germany, Holland, and Italy have also had some
experience in rug-weaving, and even little Switzerland at one time
attempted its introduction, but with unsatisfactory results. Belgium,
however, was more successful, for Brussels still produces a large number
of rugs.
THE UNITED STATES
The United States is largely occupied in rug-weaving, and the centre of
the Eastern section of this manufacture is Philadelphia. But in various
sections of the country there are rug factories, both large and small.
The _Abenákee_ rug is made at Pequaket, New Hampshire. It is the result
of a desire on the part of Mrs. Helen R. Albee to give profitable
employment to the women of the rural community where she lives. Her
success is now assured, and the reward for much labor and thought has
come in a lively demand for the rug.
The Abenákee rugs are not woven. They are an evolved form of the much
despised New England hooked rug, which was made by drawing strips of old
rag through burlap. The thick, soft, velvety Abenákee rugs of the
present day are far removed in color, design, and texture from their
humble ancestors. These rugs are all wool, hand-dyed in warm tones of
terra-cotta, old rose, old pink, tans, dull yellows, rich old blues,
olive and sage greens, and old ivory. They are made to order usually, to
match in their ground color some special color in the room where they
are to be placed, and the borders are made in harmonious tones. The
range of design is wide, from Oriental to Occidental--from Japanese to
North American Indian. But all suggestions, so soon as received, are
modified and removed as far as possible from direct imitation of any
foreign rugs. Mrs. Albee has aimed, not to reproduce Oriental effects,
but to have the designs original and distinctive. Fortunately, for years
previous to the establishment of this industry, she had studied the
principles of design and their application to various textiles, and the
knowledge which she thus acquired has proved most valuable.
The designs are bold and effective, but fineness of detail is precluded
by the strips of material, each of which is a quarter of an inch wide.
The color is arranged in broad masses.
The _New England Hooked_ or _Rag_ rug has for its foundation a strip of
burlap or sacking. Through this, strips of cloth are hooked, which form
loops, and this surface may be sheared or not, as the maker desires.
There is such an absence of attractiveness in the old-time rag rug, that
several women of taste and experience in art methods have sought the
improvement of this industry. The results have been excellent, so that,
ugly as the original rug is, it is esteemed as being the progenitor of
the more artistic Abenákee, Sabatos, and Onteora rugs.
The _Sabatos_ rug is a product of the little mountain village of Center
Lovell, Maine, started in 1900 by Mrs. Douglas Volk of New York. She has
now about a dozen women engaged in the work, this number including the
spinners, dyers, and weavers.
The Sabatos rug is durable, harmonious in color and design, and is
distinctly a home product. The wool of which it is made is sheared from
the flocks of sheep in the vicinity. The shearing takes place annually
in June; the wool is then carded, spun, and dyed. The threads of
hand-spun wool are worked through a hand-woven webbing, and securely
knotted or tied with a specially devised knot. The designs thus far are
mainly adaptations from the native American Indian motives, which are
simple and characteristic, furnishing a chance for broad color effects.
A special point is made of the dyes employed, those of vegetable origin
ruling, and only those dyes which from experience have been found to be
practically fast are used,--such for instance as genuine old Indigo
blue, madder root, and butternut.
Berea College, Kentucky, is endeavoring to encourage the weaving of rag
rugs of a superior order. So far, the industry which was started in
1905, is in a primitive state, the natives preferring to weave cotton
and wool coverlets, the designs of which they brought across the
mountains with them from Virginia in the early settlement of Kentucky.
Floor rugs they consider troublesome. The weaving is carried on in the
homes throughout the mountains of that region known as "Appalachian
America"; it is really a survival of the old Colonial industry. The rugs
are woven of strips of new ticking, and are especially designed for
bath-rooms, children's nurseries, and porches. The coloring is done with
the vegetable dyes and native barks and roots. The color schemes are the
simple ones of a primitive people.
_Navajo Rugs._ The Navajo Indian Reservation covers about eleven
thousand square miles, about six hundred and fifty of which are in the
northwest corner of New Mexico, and the remainder in the northeast
portion of Arizona. The region is well adapted for the raising of sheep,
and every family possesses flocks, which are driven from place to place
for pasture. The Navajos, however, never go to any great distance for
this, but keep generally within a radius of fifty or sixty miles from
home. This tribe weaves a rug that is useful, unique, durable, and when
at its best, impervious to rain. Among the tribes, and in some Western
homes, they are used as blankets, but it has become a fashion in many of
the best houses in the Eastern States to use them entirely as rugs,
couch coverings, and _portières_.
[Illustration: NAVAJO RUG
SIZE, 3.9 × 4.9
_The field of this Navajo Rug is in a natural shade of grayish white.
Six large diamond forms in black, with reddish edges and white centres,
rest on the field. The centres contain a tiny red line, and there are
smaller diamonds--seven in number--four having red centres and the
remainder black, and at one end are two small figures. The border is in
stripes of red, black, and an addition of white. The rug is a fine
sample of the American Indian weaving, and its simplicity places it in
striking and pleasing contrast to many of the modern productions of the
Navajos._]
It is believed that the Spaniards, when they arrived in that section of
North America inhabited by the Pueblo tribe of Indians, communicated to
them the industry of weaving these rugs, and that the Pueblos taught it
to the Navajos. Thus it appears that the weaving of the Navajo rug was a
result of the Moors' invasion of Europe. The sheep, which are raised by
thousands, were also introduced by the Spaniards. The wool is not washed
until after the shearing. In the last quarter of the nineteenth century
the Navajos began to use the shears of the white man; previously they
procured the wool by cutting it off the body of the animal with a knife,
and pulling it from the legs.
The native dyes are red, yellow, and black, and the natural colors of
the wool are black, gray, and white. The dyes of the white man are now
much used. Formerly there was a beautiful blue, which has given way to
the indigo. A scarlet cloth called Bayeta was once much used in the
weaving of these rugs, but Germantown yarn and other inventions of the
white man have largely superseded the old-time materials and methods.
The spindle is of the crudest form, and sometimes the wool is simply
picked out from the mass, and rolled into the yarn or thread on the
hand.
The looms are fashioned after the most primitive ones of the Orient,
and the weaver sits on the ground and weaves upward. Women do most of
the weaving, but occasionally a dusky-faced man may be seen at the loom.
It takes about a month to weave a rug six feet ten inches by five feet
seven inches.
The designs in the Navajo rugs are many, and mostly in angles and
straight lines, the serrated diamond design being common, as is the
swastika or fylfot. The weaver makes up her own designs as she goes
along, occasionally only tracing it in the sand.
There is a symbolism attached to many forms in these rugs. The square
with four knit corners represents the four quarters of heaven and the
four winds. A tau cross is a symbol of protection and safety, and a
prayer to the Great Spirit. A spiral form represents the purified soul,
and a double spiral is a symbol of the soul's struggle. A wave mark
represents the sea, over which the people came from a far country. Black
is the symbol of water, regarded as the mother or spirit. Red is the
symbol of fire, and is regarded as the father.
The native costume of the women of the Navajo tribe consists of two
small rugs in dark blue or black, with a bright stripe at each end. They
are of the same size, and sewed together at the sides, except where a
place is left open for the arms. Formerly the Indians reserved their
hand-made rugs for their own use, but now that there is so great a
demand for the work of their hands, they sell those rugs, and content
themselves with blankets of factory make.
Old Navajo rugs, like Oriental ones, are growing scarcer every year, and
naturally are becoming more valuable and desirable. The fine textures,
perfect workmanship, and glowing colors are seen at their best in
productions of the past.
VI
MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION
INSCRIPTIONS ON RUGS
We are occasionally indebted to an Oriental scholar for a translation of
an inscription on a rug; often these inscriptions show the religious
belief of the maker.
One fine rug in a museum in Austria has the following inscription:
"Allah! No God exists besides Him, the Living, the Eternal. Nothing
causes Him to slumber or to sleep. To Him belongs everything in heaven
and on earth. Who can intercede with Him without His permission? He
knows what is before and what is behind, and only so much of His wisdom
can be grasped as He permits. His throne fills heaven and earth, and the
support of both to Him is easy. He is the High One, the Exalted!"
A rug of Persian weave owned by Baron Nathaniel Rothschild has, worked
in the oval cartouches, an inscription translated by Professor F. Bayer
as follows:
1. "Honored mayst thou be in the world,
Among the clever and wise.
2. May no sorrow be allotted thee by an unfavoring Heaven,
And may no care torment thy heart.
3. May earth be all to thee that thou wouldst have it, and destiny prove
thy friend.
May high Heaven be thy protector.
4. May thy rising star enlighten the world,
And the falling stars of thine enemies be extinguished.
5. May every act of thine prosper,
And may every year and every day be to thee Spring-time."
In the Industrial Museum at Berlin there is a rug with this inscription:
"There is no Deity but God, and Mahomet is His Prophet."
On a Persian silk rug is a line from the Koran: "All perisheth but His
face."
Another rug has: "God is greatest! He is great!"
Often a marking in a corner of a rug is simply the name of the maker,
and the date.
The Holy Carpet of the Mosque at Ardebil, now in the South Kensington
Museum, at London, has the following interesting inscription woven in
black characters in the light cream cartouche at the top of the carpet.
Translated it reads:
"I have no refuge in the world other than thy threshold.
My head has no protection other than this porchway.
The work of the slave of this Holy Place,
Maksoud of Kashan
In the year 946."
(The year 946 of the Hegira corresponds to A. D. 1568.)
ORIENTAL SYMBOLS
All Oriental rugs have designs, and every design is symbolical. To the
connoisseur, as well as to the owners of rugs, it is vastly interesting
to understand the meaning attached to these symbols by the Orientals.
Every one is familiar with the tree design in some of its various forms,
and with the stiff little birds and the many odd and strange-looking
animals which frequently are seen on an Eastern fabric of the loom. Yet
each unique figure has a meaning, and it is a fascinating, as well as an
apparently endless task, to find the hidden significance of these
symbols. If one goes no further, he should at least become familiar with
the designs on his own rugs, and know, if possible, what they typify.
The rug itself symbolizes Eternity and Space, and the filling or plan is
the symbol of the world--beautiful, but fleeting and limited.
[Illustration: ANTIQUE PERSIAN RUG
_This rug dates from about 1500 A. D., and is of wool, with animal and
floral forms._
FROM A PHOTOGRAPH LOANED BY DR. BODE, OF BERLIN.]
CHINESE SYMBOLS
BAT _Happiness._
BUDDHIST SCEPTRE _Success in literary
labors._
CHI-LIN (a kind of doe) _Nobleness; gentleness._
CLOUD-BAND _The Deity._
COCK AND HEN ON AN ARTIFICIAL ROCK-WORK _Pleasures of country
life._
CRANE _Immortality._
CROW _Evil._
DEER _Official emolument._
DRAGON _The imperial emblem,
signifying increase and
imperial grandeur._
DRAGON WITH FIVE CLAWS ON EACH OF ITS FOUR FEET _Exclusive emblem of the
Emperor._
DRAGON AND PHOENIX _Newly wedded pair._
DUCK _Conjugal affection._
GOOSE _Domestic felicity._
GOURD _Happiness._
LION _Victory._
MAGPIE _Good luck._
OLD MAN LEANING ON A STAFF _Long life._
OWL _Dread._
PEACH _Old age._
PHOENIX _The Emblem of the
Empress._
STORK _Long life._
TORTOISE _Long life._
TREE OF LIFE WITH SEVEN BRANCHES ON A SHORT STEM_Seven days of Creation._
YOUNG STAGS _Long life._
EGYPTIAN SYMBOLS
ASPS _Intelligence_.
BAT WITH A RING IN ITS CLAWS _Duration_.
BEE _Immortality_.
BEETLE _Earthly life and the development of man
in the future state._
BLOSSOM _Life_.
BOAT _Serene spirit gliding upon the waters._
BULL _Source of life._
BUTTERFLY _Soul._
CARTOUCHE _Eternity._
CRESCENT _Celestial virgin._
CROCODILE _Beneficent Deity._
DOVE _Love; mourning of a widow._
EAGLE _Creation; preservation; destruction;
power._
EGG _Life._
EYE OF OSIRIS _Eye of the Eternal Judge over all._
FEATHER OF AN OSTRICH _Truth; justice. (The ostrich itself does
not appear In Egyptian art.)_
FEATHERS OF RARE BIRDS _Sovereignty._
FROG _Renewed birth._
HAWK _Power._
IBIS _Usefulness; the heart._