CHAPTER IV
HAND-MADE CARPETS
The characteristic feature of a carpet, as distinguished from other floor coverings, is the combination of a surface composed almost always of wool with a woven foundation, which may be of various materials.
The main classification of carpets is between those which are made by hand and those which are made by machine; and of both these classes there are many sub-divisions.
Hand-made carpets are the oldest type of the fabric, and, coming from the East, are the historical parents of all modern carpets. This kind of carpet is made to-day in the United Kingdom, on the Continent, and in the East in almost exactly the same manner in which it has been made by the Orientals for several hundred years. The principle is extremely simple. The warp threads, or chain, are wound on two horizontal beams, between which they are stretched vertically. The beams are carried by upright posts on which they can revolve, the space between the posts determining the width of the rug or carpet. The weavers sit side by side in front, the carpet as it is woven being gradually wound on to the lower beam, and the warp correspondingly unwound from the upper beam. The yarn for the pile is cut up into tufts about 2 in. in length, and is knotted round two warp threads, tuft by tuft, according to the paper design, which is attached in front of the weaver. As each row, or part of a row is finished, two weft threads are put in, one in the shed formed between the front and back halves of the chain, and a second in an alternate shed, which is formed by the weaver pulling forward the back half of the chain temporarily in front of the front half. The second weft is put in straight, the first one loose, zig-zag, or vandyked, so as to fill up the back of the carpet, and to avoid the tendency towards lateral contraction. The weft is beaten down into its place by a heavy fork or beater. This interlocking of warp and weft with the tuft forms the weave of the carpet, and has been imitated more or less in all mechanically woven carpet fabrics.
Fig. 1 TURKISH KNOT
There are two different kinds of knot employed, the Ghiordes or Turkish, and the Senne or Persian. In carpets made with the former, the tuft of yarn is knotted round a pair of warp threads in such a manner that the two ends of yarn come between the two warp threads round which the tuft is looped, and consequently two pile ends alternate with every two warp threads. In Persian carpets the tuft is knotted in such a way that one end of the tuft obtrudes between each warp thread. This method of weaving renders possible a closer texture than the Turkish knot; while carpets of suitable design and finer pitch are often woven with a running thread looped round the finger of the weaver, and then cut, instead of by individual tufts. This latter system gives more waste but quicker weaving. With both Turkish and Persian knots the tuft ends do not stand up at right angles to the plane of the fabric, but lie over obliquely towards the starting end of the carpet. This natural slant of the pile, which results in presenting to the eye and the foot of the user of the carpet partly the ends and partly the sides of tufts, is a very characteristic feature of hand-made carpets, and one which cannot be completely imitated by any class of machine-made fabrics.
Another kind of hand weaving is the tapestry method, wherein the weft colours, wound upon wooden needles, are threaded round and between the warp ends, leaving a flat or slightly ribbed surface, not unlike that of an ingrain carpet. The absence of a tufted pile does not make this a luxurious carpet; but it enables a fine pitch to be employed, and the richest and most delicate effects of design and colour to be obtained. Carpets of this type have long been made at Les Gobelins, Paris, Aubusson, and Beauvais, in France, and Tournai, in Belgium. The work is slow and highly skilled, and the product is naturally very expensive.
There is no better kind of carpet than the carpet made by hand; though this is far from implying that all hand-tufted carpets are superior to all machine-made ones. But there is no method of combining the pile with the foundation so good as the knot; and it cannot be completely imitated by the cleverest power-loom invented. The hand-tufted carpet possesses an individuality, even in its faults, which no product of a machine can attain, and which, after all, is an attribute to a work of art. More of the soul of the worker has passed into it than the clashing metal of a power loom will permit to filter into its product.