RUG AND CARPET

any decorative textile normally made of a thick material and now usually intended as a floor covering. Until the 19th century the word carpet was used for any cover, such as a table cover or wall hanging; since the introduction of machine-made products, however, it has been used almost exclusively for a floor covering. Both in Great Britain and in the United States the word rug is often used for a partial floor covering as distinguished from carpet, which frequently is tacked down to the floor and usually covers it wall-to-wall. In reference to handmade carpets, however, the names rug and carpet are used interchangeably. Handmade carpets are works of art as well as functional objects. Indeed, many Oriental carpets have reached such supreme heights of artistic expression that they have always been regarded in the East as objects of exceptional beauty and luxury in the same way as masterpieces of painting have been in the West. Handmade carpets are discussed here in terms of their elements of design, material, technique, ornament and imagery, use, and stylistic characteristics in different periods and cultures. decorative textiles, usually intended as floor coverings and normally made of a thick material. Until the 19th century, rugs and carpets were handmade and were often of such high artistic quality that they were usually considered works of art. In the 20th century the word rug is often used to describe a partial and movable floor covering, often of relatively small size, while the word carpet denotes wall-to-wall covering that is fastened to the floor. The design of rugs and carpets is frequently considered as an aspect of interior design, although before the 17th century they were made almost exclusively as objects of beauty, luxury, and utility in their own right and not conceived as part of an overall scheme or pattern. Their design and execution reached its highest artistic quality in Persia in the 15th and 16th centuries. Carpets were first made in central and western Asia as coverings for earthen floors and were the only form of decorative art generally practiced by nomadic peoples. Carpetsunlike furniture, pottery, or metalworkscould be easily transported and were as useful in tents and simple dwellings as they were in palaces and religious buildings. Carpets served as blankets, saddle covers, storage bags, flexible tent doorways, and tomb covers. The prayer rug was designed to be carried everywhere and was therefore correspondingly small and portable and usually decorated with religious imagery. Oriental carpets imported into Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries were considered as valuable objects of decorative art, too precious to be put on the floor, and they were frequently hung on walls, over balconies, or used to cover furniture. Dutch paintings of 17th century interiors often show Oriental carpets used as chest or table covers. The two distinct techniques of Oriental carpet weaving are the knotted pile carpet and the woven flat carpet, or kilim. The material used is usually wool, though some of the finest Persian carpets are woven of silk. Cotton, linen, and hemp are the traditional materials for the carpet foundation, which is composed of horizontal, or weft, yarns, and vertical, or warp, yarns. The different pile carpet yarns, traditionally coloured with natural dyes such as madder and indigo, are knotted individually by hand around warp yarns so that the unknotted ends form a pile above the foundation. These pile ends are later sheared to an even height. The quality of the carpet is determined by the intricacy and beauty of the design and by the density and skill of the knotting. Some Indian carpets have more than 2,400 knots per square inch. Several different types of knot were used, depending on the geographical origin of the carpet, the most important of these being the Turkish, or Ghiordes, knot and the Persian, or Sehna, knot. Kilims are made in a manner similar to tapestries and do not, therefore, have any pile. The overall design of a carpet is usually divided between a central area, called the field, and one or more borders that act as a sort of frame. The field may be decorated with an all-over design or with various panels or medallions. The designs of the finest carpets are usually intricate yet always balanced and harmonious. The motifs used are often symbolic and may be geometric, stylized, or naturalistic. In the finest Persian carpets a stylized scrolling vine design, or arabesque, was common. Naturalistic plant forms, such as flowers and fruit trees, symbolize eternal life and rebirth. Small birds and motifs connected with the hunt were also favoured. Designs of great elegance and intricacy inspired by illuminated manuscripts were also highly regarded. European carpets tended toward less stylized flat designs in favour of designs that imitated painting, creating a pictorial effect with light and shadow. The carpets of western Turkistan, sometimes wrongly called Bokhara, were made in great quantity, especially in the last century, by nomadic tribes, and large numbers have been exported to the west. Most of these carpets are dark red in colour with geometric designs covering the field and arranged symmetrically in rows. Important European carpet manufacturies were established in France, where Savonnerie and Aubusson carpets were made in the 17th and 18th centuries, and in England at Axminster. Mechanization transformed carpet making in the 19th and 20th centuries. The power loom made its appearance in 1839, and the high-speed tufting method originated in the United States in the 1920s. In the tufting process, a prewoven backing fabric moves through a high-speed machine as a bank of giant needles inserts individual tufts into the material. Yarn from spools on large creels is airblown through plastic or copper tubes to the needles. On the face side of the carpet, the yarn is caught by a hook that forms the loop. For cut pile, a small knife beside each hook slits the loop. A layer of latex over the back of the carpet locks the fibres in place. A second woven backing may be added to increase stability and strength. Through electronic control of the yarn feed and the needle action, the height of the pile may be varied, creating textured patterns. The three basic types of power looms are the velvet, the Wilton, and the Axminster. Additional reading For further study in this area the following summaries are recommended: Friedrich Sarre and Hermann Trenkwald, Altorientalische Teppiche, 2 vol. (192628; Eng. trans., Old Oriental Carpets, 2 vol., 192629), excellent large plates with exact description and technical analysis of masterpieces of Oriental rugs and carpets, including a comprehensive bibliography; Kurt Erdmann, Der orientalische Knpfteppich, 3rd ed. (1965; Eng. trans., Oriental Carpets, 2nd ed., 1962), an important discussion of Oriental rugs and carpets with regard to artistic developmentcontains a comprehensive bibliography for all areas of the Oriental carpet, including newspaper and journal essays, and museum and auction catalogs, arranged according to subject areas; and Siebenhundert Jahre Orientteppich (1966; Eng. trans., Seven Hundred Years of Oriental Carpets, (1970), a posthumous collection of the author's articles, presenting material not found in his earlier works; Wilhelm von Bode and Ernst Kuhnel, Vorderasiatische Knpfteppiche aus alter Zeit, 4th ed. (1955; Eng. trans., Antique Rugs from the Near East, 4th rev. ed. 1970), a handbook on the scientific study of rugs and carpets; Albert F. Kendrick and C.E.C. Tattersall, Handwoven Carpets, Oriental and European, 2 vol. (1922, reprinted 1973), a monographic treatment of the individual types, including products after 1800; Arthur V. Pope and Phyllis Ackerman, The Art of Carpet Making in a Survey of Persian Art from Prehistoric Times to the Present, 7 vol. (193839), the most comprehensive study of the art of carpet making in Persia, richly illustrated; Cornelia B. Faraday, European and American Carpets and Rugs (1929), a comprehensive study of European and American carpet production, including native arts and machine-made carpets (very richly illustrated but without bibliography); C.E.C. Tattersall, A History of British Carpets, rev. ed. (1966), an extensive study of carpet production in England, including machine-made carpets; M.J. Majorcas, English Needlework Carpets, 16th19th Centuries (1963), a richly illustrated treatise; Madeleine Jarry, Manufacture nationale de la Savonnerie (Eng. trans., The Carpets of the Manufacture de la Savonnerie 1966), and The Carpets of Aubusson (1969), two studies of French floor coverings, with ample illustrations; and Valerie Justin Flat-woven Rugs of the World: Kilim, Soumak, and Brocading (1980). See also P.R.J. Ford, The Oriental Carpet: A History and Guide to Traditional Motifs, Patterns, and Symbols (1981); and Giovanni Curatola, The Simon and Schuster Book of Oriental Carpets (1982).