Paper Rugs and Carpets

It is impossible to understand the architecture of the 20th century and of our own time without first coming to terms with Le Corbusier (1887-1965). His buildings can be found from P...

This is a scarce copy of a Sotheby Parke Bernet sale catalogue (Sunday 25th May 1980) of the contents of the Maharaja of Indore's modernistic Madik Bagh palace which he had designed ...

Keith Haring 1988 Martin Lawrence limited editions catalog: Features 49 color and 19 black and white printed illustrations and also includes an exhi...

The Aubusson tapestry manufacture of the 17th and 18th centuries managed to compete with the royal manufacture of Gobelins tapestry and the privileged position of Beauvais tapestry. Tapestry manufacture at Aubusson, in the upper valley of the Creuse in central France, may have developed from looms in isolated family workshops established by Flemings that are noted in documents from the 16th century. Typically, Aubusson tapestries depended on engravings as a design source or the full-scale cartoons from which the low-warp tapestry-weavers worked. As with Flemish and Parisian tapestries...

This woven woollen tapestry features a design of stylised birds and flowers. It is woven in a heavyweight wool using mainly nature-inspired shades of sky blue, yellow and ecru highlighting the flowers and birds. It has the designer's initials NE in the lower right corner. c1970s Éva Németh...

Rare Antique French Tapestry handmade Verdure Tapestry 4' x 5' 122cm x 153cm Circa 1920 A magnificent antique French tapestry depicting a hunting scene amongst a verdure s...

First printing of the first revised & enlarged hardcover edition of The Americans by Robert Frank with writings by Jack Kerouac published by Aperture /Grossman 1969. The landmark ...

Published by Gagosian Gallery, 1st edition, New York & London, 2006. Hardback with English text. “In a punning reference to a Pollock masterwork, the image makes its point with rhyt...

Article: Wall hanging element Decade: 1970s Origin: Germany Design: Ewald Kröner attrib. This rug is a great example of 1970s pop art interior. Made i...

Antique American Hooked rug featuring colorful pictorial village scene, rug s12-0806, country of origin / type: United States / Hooked, circa 1920 This American Hooked rug depicts...

Nice late 19th century French needlepoint tapestry fragment, originally made for chair cover, with a beautiful decorative design and beautiful col...

A vintage American Braided oval room size carpet handmade during the mid-20th century. Measures: 9' 5" x 12' 3" North American has never developed a unified handmade rug tradition, but rather it is the unassimilated confluence of several. From Mexico comes the Saltillo serape wearing blanket, and this stimulates the Navajo and Rio Grande (Colorado) weavers, first as blankets, then as rugs. The thrifty habits of rural America gave rise to the New England (and Western Canadian) hooked rug types, while the farmers of the Midwest recycled their disused garments into braided and rag rugs. The closest to a real ongoing tradition are the Southwestern (New Mexican) Navajo rugs. By the 1860’s the native tribes were weaving wearing blankets with wool from the Spanish churro sheep. These were in stripe design, with combinations of undyed wool with cochineal reds and indigo blues. The multi-phase “Chief’s Blankets” from the 1870’s-80’s are a natural outgrowth of these. Machine spun red wool from Germantown in Pennsylvania appeared in the 1870’s with a bright red hitherto unobtainable. The weavers loved it and blankets appeared with bright reds, generally aniline, in “eye dazzler” patterns. Anglo traders established posts beginning in the 1890’s. Navajo weavings were perfect accompaniments not only for Western-themed decors, but for East Coast apartments, only they needed to be thicker and more rug like to be truly accepted. The traders brought Caucasian and Turkish village rugs to copy, borders were introduced and central medallions devised. The weavers continued to create on vertical looms, with a shared warp (dovetailing) weft structure to avoid slits. The warps were cotton string. Sizes were generally scatters, but occasionally a special order came in, hence antique room size Navajos are very rare and very pricey. Distinct village/pueblo styles developed. Among the best are: Two Grey Hills (considered the tightest, closest of all Navajo weaving), Crystal Springs and Ganado. Certain new patterns such as the “Storm pattern” with jagged lightning bolts emanating from a dark cloud developed. The Yei rug with dancing Kachina doll figures became popular. The palette has been expanded beyond the classic grey, tan, dark brown and cream natural wool combination to again include reds, blue and greens. Navajo pictorials include: American flags, trains and automobiles, domestic and local scenes and scenery. Individual artist weavers now command gallery shows and correspondingly elevated prices. There are several levels of Navajo work, and antique and vintage scatters with simple flat designs, medium weaves and tritonal palettes, and in good floor worthy condition are still available reasonably. The Native American weaving tradition extends into Colorado with two piece scatters with sharp sawtooth medallions and striped end borders, with wool tapestry weave on cotton warps. These descend from the Saltillo blankets...