299. For a Similar Reason
carpets whose colours are all of what artists call middle tint (neither dark nor light), cannot fail to look dull and dingy, even when quite new.
300. For a Carpet to be really Beautiful
and in good taste, there should be, as in a picture, a judicious disposal of light and shadow, with a gradation of very bright and of very dark tints; some almost white, and others almost or quite black.
301. The Best Carpets
The most truly chaste, rich, and elegant carpets are those which are of one colour only, the pattern, if pattern it may be called, being formed by a judicious arrangement of every variety of shade of this colour. For instance, a Brussels carpet entirely red; the pattern formed by shades or tints varying from the deepest crimson (almost a black), to the palest pink (almost a white). Also one of green only, shaded from the darkest bottle-green, in some parts of the pattern, to the lightest pea-green in others. Or one in which there is no colour but brown, in all its various gradations, some of the shades being nearly black, others of a light buff.