The garden idea is apparent. The deer, stork, tree, and cotyledon (seed leaf) forms are of the “Shou” order suggestive of long life. The round fret forms at the corners likewise symbolize this
The art of China, as expressed in porcelain and in painting, took hold upon the fancy of the West long ago: witness the Delft ware, which of course owes its inspiration to Chinese sources. Europe had a passable notion of Chinese artistic tenets at a rather early period. So, relatively, had America. It is interesting to note that of the Chinese rugs, now so amazingly popular in this country, practically nothing was known until fifteen or twenty years ago, save to an exceedingly small number of people. The period of their predominance in popular favor has been brief; but already the supply of old pieces with real merit is exhausted, particularly in the larger sizes.
SUDDEN POPULARITY
The vogue of the Chinese rug in this country is unquestionably due to the artistic sense and discernment of the late Stanford White. In a certain establishment in New York there had grown up an accumulation of old Chinese pieces, some of them very rare and beautiful, which had been “thrown in” with other art objects purchased. They begged for attention at thirty or forty dollars each, until Mr. White placed one or two of them in the hall of the late William C. Whitney’s house. From that moment the demand for them, and consequently their market value, advanced at a prodigious rate.
No matter what anybody may claim, it is doubtful if there has ever been in Europe or America any definite or systematized knowledge of the locality of origin or the period of Chinese rugs. Aside from the small importance usually attached to them as art products by the Chinese themselves, this dearth of specific knowledge has been due to the fact that the rugs were not woven in Eastern China, but in the interior provinces, and, even after a demand arose for them in the West, buyers were well content to await arrivals in the Treaty Ports, rather than court the perils of travel into the Chinese hinterland. It was believed that as soon as the demand became known there would be great influx of desirable fabrics to Peking. There was; but it lasted only for a little space, and today in the Chinese capital a rug of any merit whatsoever commands a price almost prohibitive. This has led to a great volume of manufacture in Peking, both in new designs and in more or less creditable copies of the old. But so violently has this commercial production been promoted that the very multitude of modern Chinese rugs has begun to work injury to the enterprise; although the texture of the new rugs is finer than that in many of the old ones. In fact, Chinese rug weaving as a whole does not show any impressively high measure of technical accomplishment.
TEXTURE OF CHINESE RUGS
The texture of Chinese floor coverings is usually far coarser than the Persian, or even the Turkish, notwithstanding that they are woven in the Persian knot, which lends itself to amazing fineness of detail. In addition to this coarseness a very heavy weft or cross-thread is used, sometimes four heavy strands after each transverse row of knots. This results in a very flat “lie” of the pile. The difference between this and the fine, almost perpendicular pile found in the rugs of Ispahan (so-called) of Tabriz and of Kashan, is striking; but it doubtless expresses the general attitude of the Chinese toward the rug. They evidently regarded it merely as a medium for the presentation of simple patterns and broad masses of color, and the quickest method of securing these was the best.
DESIGN AND TREATMENT
Chinese rug design and treatment are plainly impressionistic, as contrasted with the infinite detail that marks the high-school weavings of Persia.
