Rugs: Oriental and Occidental, Antique & Modern Part 10

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 princ.i.p.al 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 coa.r.s.e, 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 coa.r.s.e 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 Caernarvon.

Edward the Third (1327-1377) invited Flemish weavers to settle in England. At that time England produced wool in large quant.i.ties, 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 ent.i.tled "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 aesthetic, 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 aesthetic 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 inst.i.tution 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 quant.i.ty, 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 _Abenakee_ 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 a.s.sured, and the reward for much labor and thought has come in a lively demand for the rug.

The Abenakee 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 Abenakee 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 j.a.panese 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 ma.s.ses.

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 Abenakee, 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 b.u.t.ternut.

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 _portieres_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 ma.s.s, 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.