Carpet

Carpets and carpet dealers in the United States

Rugs and Carpets, heavy fabrics commonly made of wool and used as floor coverings. A rug differs from a carpet in that it is usually woven in one piece and usually does not cover an entire floor.
The two classifications of carpet are flat-woven and knotted-pile. Tapestry is probably the oldest of the flat-woven patterned carpet weaves. It is characterized by discontinuous threads of different colors that form the design patterns. Other flat-woven rug techniques include soumak, brocading, and embroidery. The characteristic feature of pile carpets is the knotting and fastening of extra strands of material into a foundation weave to form a dense layer of loops. Short individual strands are manually wrapped or knotted around taut vertical threads. After each row is knotted, a horizontal thread is carried across the full width of the web and beaten firmly into place.
Materials
The most common material for rugs and carpets has traditionally been sheep's wool, although in certain regions goat or camel hair is also used. Luxury rugs and carpets sometimes use silk. Until the late 19th century natural dyes, made from mineral pigments, plant materials, and animals and insects, were used for coloring the yarns. Synthetic dyes were produced in Europe beginning in the mid-19th century and were soon introduced into Asia and North America. These dyes were popular because of their inexpensiveness and brilliant color, but they tended to fade and deteriorate quickly.
Historical Development
The history of rugs and carpets encompasses two major traditions: the Asian and the Western. The Asian tradition is older and richer than the Western. Most Asian carpets are rectangular, although other shapes are occasionally found. Nearly all designs are divided into a border and a field. The border is often composed of complex stripes of varying widths; the field design may contain a single central element or a repeating pattern.
The earliest Islamic pile carpets from the Middle East date from the 13th century. In the second half of the 15th century, pattern forms were revolutionized in Iran (then known as Persia). Persian rugs of this period are characterized by balanced compositions, strong color contrasts, and multilayered patterns. Some of the most important carpet types of the 16th and 17th centuries are associated with the city of Ushak in western Turkey, which was one of the centers of court weaving in the Ottoman Empire. Prayer rugs, star-patterned rugs, medallion carpets, and bird patterns are ascribed to Ushak artisans. Rugs from Caucasia, a vast mountainous region between the Black and Caspian seas, are identified by their extreme stylization and geometrization, generally on a red background. Two of the most distinctive types are dragon rugs and floral rugs.
Rugs produced in Egypt from the 15th to mid-16th centuries have vivid colors with central geometric motifs or medallions and stylized plant designs. A distinctive characteristic of these carpets is the frequent lack of contrast between the borders and the central design. Indian carpets display more naturalistic renderings of Persian patterns of flowers and vines. Asymmetrical, freely drawn compositions of animals and hunting scenes on wine-red backgrounds are also typical. Chinese carpets differ from all other Asian carpets in both design and color. The designs in Chinese carpets are rarely decorative and often convey a specific message through symbols and emblems.
The origins of Western carpets are obscure. The earliest European pile carpets were produced in 12th-century and 13th-century Spain. Spanish artisans mixed Islamic motifs with European motifs such as coats of arms and Christian emblems. In the 17th and 18th centuries France was the most important center of pile-woven carpet manufacturing in Europe. Two major weaving centers÷Savonnerie and Aubusson÷were established for the production of carpets based on Asian techniques. These centers followed the main stylistic trends in producing carpets for royalty and wealthy patrons.
Carpets were not produced in England until the second half of the 16th century and early 17th century. The first machine-made carpets were inexpensive, coarse, reversible floor coverings, woven for utility. The widespread introduction of mechanical weaving in the 19th century effectively ended the production of Western hand-knotted pile carpets. Since the late 19th century, various revivals of old techniques and designs have occurred in almost every Western country. Since the 1940s, a fundamental distinction has been made between individually designed, hand-produced rugs and mass-produced carpets.