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Interiors
religious and political problems in Europe.
The defection of Huguenots from the French
textile weaving centres in the late 17th and
early 18th centuries is now famous. They
brought with them the sophisticated skills
of 17th century silk weaving, but it was
only in the mid 18th century that weaving
hand-knotted carpets using the ‘Turkish’ or
symmetrical knot was developed. Symmetrical
knots had traditionally been used in Britain
in the 16th and early 17th century in ‘Turkey
work’, whereas the great French Savonnerie
carpets were more usually woven with
asymmetrical or ‘Persian’ knots.
In the 1750s carpet factories were set up by
different weavers in Paddington, Moorefields,
Fulham and later in Axminster, Exeter and
Frome, all using slightly different techniques
and materials. Although the original 18th
century weavers came from France, fairly
quickly English apprentices were trained and
the workforce became predominantly British.
These carpets were the products of great skill.
They were immaculately designed and woven,
and showed an unparalleled sophistication of
design and weaving. Incorporating complex
mono-coloured field designs supporting an
abundance of flowers, their designs rivalled
the herbaceous borders of the great country
houses, which were then being stocked with
new plants introduced by botanist explorers.
A fine example is the Axminster carpet
from the Blue Drawing Room at Dumfries
House, made by Thomas Whitty in Axminster
in 1759. It is a spectacular example of his
early weaving. The design consists of four
cornucopia, spilling flowers onto a brick
chevron ground. The flowers, which include
roses, daffodils, crown imperial, morning
glory and tulips, are woven in a subtle
palette and with an accuracy similar to the
flower drawings and embroidery of the time
but executed in hand-knotted carpet with
approximately 20 knots per square inch.
Carpets of this quality were woven on woollen
warps and linen wefts, while some of the lower
grade carpets made later in the century were
woven with both warps and wefts of linen and
coarser wool. These lower grade carpets lack
the high lustre of the famous 18th-century
Axminster carpets found in The Royal
Collection and at Harewood House, Dumfries
House and such National Trust houses as
Saltram, Wimpole, Attingham and Uppark.
Changes in architecture and interior
design, structural advances and economic
growth all affected the changes in the
arrangement of furniture, and this was
reflected in the style and scale of design of
the carpets. It is noticeable that the designs of
the carpets were governed by the size, shape
and function of the room in which they were
used. For example, in a large room such as the
saloon at Saltram House, which would have
been used for formal receptions, the furniture
is arranged around the edge of the room. The
central medallion of the carpet visually draws
the room together, while the carpet’s various
geometrical forms prevent the size of the room
from being overwhelming. This is in contrast
to the intimacy of the flowing floral designs
of parlour carpets, such as the one in the Blue
Drawing Room at Dumfries House, or the
overlapping circles of the Music Room carpet
at Harewood.
Robert Adam often designed carpets
and ceilings to reflect each other. The Adam
carpet and ceiling at Saltram is a very fine
example of this, as are the two Adam carpets
at Harewood House. Creating mutually-
complementary designs in these two very
different mediums would have required a
remarkable range of skills. Carpets needed a
formal design structure, which was produced
rather like a mosaic from the small squares of
the knots. The stucco ceilings, meanwhile, had
to conform to exact mathematical proportions
to perfectly fit the space allowed.
Deterioration and conservation
Many different factors contribute to
the deterioration of historic carpets
including wear, sunlight damage and other
environmental problems. Textiles often
suffer from the chemical deterioration
of their constituent materials, which are
made from biodegradable plant and animal
fibres. Axminster carpets, for example,
suffer from deteriorating linen wefts,
a problem which may be caused by the
acidity produced by ageing wool. Typically
the wefts disintegrate and small splits
grow into large broken areas leaving the
woollen warp and knots intact but loose.
Conservation treatments for carpets in
historic houses have been developed to meet
ethical as well as practical needs. Treatments
for textiles and other objects in use create
special challenges for conservators. Unlike
most valued historic objects, carpets in
historic houses will usually continue to be
used and exposed to wear after conservation.
The problem of conserving carpets in historic
houses, which have different needs from
The Blue Drawing Room at Dumfries House, Ayrshire with its Axminster carpet of 1758 (Reproduced by the kind permission of
The Great Steward of Scotland’s Dumfries House Trust. Photo: Mike Scott)
Detail of the central medallion showing the deterioration of the black iron tannin mordant dye