Rugs: Oriental and Occidental, Antique & Modern / A Handbook for Ready Reference

by Rosa Belle Holt

The United States

The United States is largely occupied in rug-weaving, and the centre of the Eastern section of this manufacture is Philadelphia. But in various sections of the country there are rug factories, both large and small.

The Abenákee rug is made at Pequaket, New Hampshire. It is the result of a desire on the part of Mrs. Helen R. Albee to give profitable employment to the women of the rural community where she lives. Her success is now assured, and the reward for much labor and thought has come in a lively demand for the rug.

The Abenákee rugs are not woven. They are an evolved form of the much despised New England hooked rug, which was made by drawing strips of old rag through burlap. The thick, soft, velvety Abenákee rugs of the present day are far removed in color, design, and texture from their humble ancestors. These rugs are all wool, hand-dyed in warm tones of terra-cotta, old rose, old pink, tans, dull yellows, rich old blues, olive and sage greens, and old ivory. They are made to order usually, to match in their ground color some special color in the room where they are to be placed, and the borders are made in harmonious tones. The range of design is wide, from Oriental to Occidental—from Japanese to North American Indian. But all suggestions, so soon as received, are modified and removed as far as possible from direct imitation of any foreign rugs. Mrs. Albee has aimed, not to reproduce Oriental effects, but to have the designs original and distinctive. Fortunately, for years previous to the establishment of this industry, she had studied the principles of design and their application to various textiles, and the knowledge which she thus acquired has proved most valuable.

The designs are bold and effective, but fineness of detail is precluded by the strips of material, each of which is a quarter of an inch wide. The color is arranged in broad masses.

The New England Hooked or Rag rug has for its foundation a strip of burlap or sacking. Through this, strips of cloth are hooked, which form loops, and this surface may be sheared or not, as the maker desires. There is such an absence of attractiveness in the old-time rag rug, that several women of taste and experience in art methods have sought the improvement of this industry. The results have been excellent, so that, ugly as the original rug is, it is esteemed as being the progenitor of the more artistic Abenákee, Sabatos, and Onteora rugs.

The Sabatos rug is a product of the little mountain village of Center Lovell, Maine, started in 1900 by Mrs. Douglas Volk of New York. She has now about a dozen women engaged in the work, this number including the spinners, dyers, and weavers.

The Sabatos rug is durable, harmonious in color and design, and is distinctly a home product. The wool of which it is made is sheared from the flocks of sheep in the vicinity. The shearing takes place annually in June; the wool is then carded, spun, and dyed. The threads of hand-spun wool are worked through a hand-woven webbing, and securely knotted or tied with a specially devised knot. The designs thus far are mainly adaptations from the native American Indian motives, which are simple and characteristic, furnishing a chance for broad color effects.

A special point is made of the dyes employed, those of vegetable origin ruling, and only those dyes which from experience have been found to be practically fast are used,—such for instance as genuine old Indigo blue, madder root, and butternut.

Berea College, Kentucky, is endeavoring to encourage the weaving of rag rugs of a superior order. So far, the industry which was started in 1905, is in a primitive state, the natives preferring to weave cotton and wool coverlets, the designs of which they brought across the mountains with them from Virginia in the early settlement of Kentucky. Floor rugs they consider troublesome. The weaving is carried on in the homes throughout the mountains of that region known as "Appalachian America"; it is really a survival of the old Colonial industry. The rugs are woven of strips of new ticking, and are especially designed for bath-rooms, children's nurseries, and porches. The coloring is done with the vegetable dyes and native barks and roots. The color schemes are the simple ones of a primitive people.