52 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



February, 1910 



The Revival of Rag Rugs 



By Eliza Oliver 



jN THE widespread admiration for old 

 household things, old furniture, old 

 china, old pewter, old furnishings of 

 every sort, it is quite natural to look for 

 a revival of the rag rugs of the old time. 

 Almost everything in the way of old fur- 

 nishings has survived from the antique 

 past of America except floor coverings. In the very nature 



arduous research and much anxious seeking, that they were 

 hailed at once as the long-lost missing-link in the modern 

 reproductions of old furnishings. And no wonder, if you 

 please, that the supply of genuine antiques of this sort was 

 speedily exhausted. Many fragile articles have survived 

 from the past, but while carpets and rugs cannot be classed 

 as such, their material forbade their preservation and their 

 rarity is very great. 



But the old-time rug having been recovered and its essen- 



of things these articles must be the rarest of all ancient 



survivals. The old chairs and tables were carried up into tial place in house furnishing recognized, the next step was 



the attics; the old china and glass ware were thrust further its reproduction as a modern article. This industry is now 



and further back into the closets or hidden away where well developed, and every carpet store has its stock of 



they would not be seen; but the old carpets and rugs were modern rugs and carpets which either accurately reproduce 



bundled forth joyously to the ash-heap or the bonfire, and known antique patterns, or which reproduce the old spirit 



a constant peril of moths gaily dispensed with and utterly 



destroyed with a veritable sense of housewifely care and 



thrift. 



I exaggerate, of course, when I hint at the total destruc- 

 tion of such articles, for 

 some have survived, and in 

 some quiet old parts of the 

 country these survivals have 

 been fairly numerous. But 

 taking old furnishings as a 

 whole, it must be apparent 

 to anyone who has given 

 the matter some thought, 

 that floor coverings are the 

 rarest of all survivals. And 

 not only Is this true, but un- 

 til very recent years there 

 has been no adequate mod- 

 ern substitute for these very 

 important articles. The 

 housewife who has tried to 

 find a floor covering to go 

 with her old furniture — 

 newly brought out from Its 

 hiding-place, retouched and 

 repaired "as good as new" 

 — will, time and again, find 

 nothing at all that either 

 seems suitable or which in 

 any way appears to be of 

 the period of her tables and 

 chairs. 



And, indeed, the problem 

 is a hard one. No old room 

 can be adequately repro- 

 duced without its appropriate floor covering. The Orien- 

 tal rug, even in its most modest pattern and most subdued 

 colors, is manifestly inappropriate, since our ancestors made 

 no use of such articles, ancient as their use in their own 

 environment may be. The modern carpet, until very re- 

 cently, is equally Inadmissible to rooms that seek to retain 

 the old-time atmosphere with any degree of accuracy. A 

 real problem was presented here of more than usual com- 

 plexity, a problem so diflicult to solve, and so very general, 

 that many a good room to-day which is filled with excellent 

 old furniture, and which, while in every part giving evi- 

 dence of thoughtful care for old-time atmosphere and feel- 

 ing, is still imperfect and indeed unfinished with its in- 



congruous floor covering. No wonder, then, when old 



rugs and old pieces of carpets came to the light through one. And surely it is true; for is it not set down in the 



in a new form that renders them admirably adapted to 

 modern use in the most careful combination of old-time 

 furnishings. 



Miss Adalalde Sprall has been most successful in this 



work, and has kindly loaned 

 me photographs of her 

 looms for reproduction, 

 with this article. 



The reproduction of old 

 rugs and carpets has not, 

 however, been left to the 

 carpet manufacturer. In- 

 terest in this work having 

 been aroused, fresh 

 searches among the old 

 houses and outbuildings 

 were made, and not a few 

 old-time looms have been 

 recovered in the very lo- 

 calities in which they were 

 formerly utilized. And, be- 

 ing discovered, It was but a 

 step further to put them 

 into use again, and restore 

 the weavings of rugs and 

 carpets to Its former dig- 

 nity of a household craft. 



The work done in this 

 direction has been very 

 widespread and Immensely 

 successful. Women who, 

 but a few years ago, hardly 

 knew there was such an art 

 as rug weaving, are to-day 

 turning out beautiful speci- 

 mens of home-made rugs that have, many of them, all the 

 merits of the antique rugs. For the old rugs were likewise 

 home-made, and the modern worker needs but the old pat- 

 terns to produce work of the same old spirit. 



The good people who tell about the triumphs of the 

 home worker in this and in many similar directions, have 

 much to say concerning the utilization of the time so em- 

 ployed. They draw a picture, or attempt to draw it, of 

 rural home life, in which the good housewife has lonely 

 and unoccupied hours, with nothing to do and nothing 

 to think about. And then they advance a still more allur- 

 ing portrait of the craft worker, busily engaged in some 

 domestic art that she will send to the shop and exchange for 

 useful dollars. It is a beautiful picture and a fascinating 



A Martha Washington carpet 



