In France, too, the stimulus for the production of knotted carpets may have come from the East; but the designs of the rugs were inspired by contemporary French decoration rather than Oriental carpet design. Jean Fortier and Pierre Dupont won fame knotting pieces in the Hospice de la Savonnerie at Chaillot, which was converted from a soap factory to a carpet factory in the early 17th century. “Savonnerie” became a mark of distinction in French carpets, reaching a zenith during the later 17th century with Louis XIV’s immense order for Versailles. Combined since 1826 with the Gobelins factory, the firm still operates. Thick and strong, these carpets consist of a woolen pile on a mostly linen warp. During the 18th century and afterward, many tapestry-woven carpets were made at Aubusson as well as at other tapestry factories. Even though their production has not been confined to that city, they are known as Aubusson carpets.

The European concept of carpet design, as distinguished from the Oriental concept, is most explicit in the Savonnerie carpets, in which three-dimensional compositions complement architecture, and even portraits are reproduced. The style of such carpets is best seen in sketches of rug design made by Charles Le Brun for Louis XIV (mostly in the Mobilier National [National Furnishings collection] in Paris).

United Kingdom and Ireland

The growth of a native craft in the United Kingdom soon followed on the introduction of carpets from Turkey, though 16th- and 17th-century intact specimens number only about a dozen. They are characterized by a hemp warp and weft, medium-fine woolen pile, and the symmetrical knot. The background usually is green, and there are so many shades of the other colours that the entire number of tints is greater than in Oriental carpets. The designs can be divided into two groups. In the first are typically English patterns resembling contemporary embroidery, often with heraldic devices and dates. The oldest specimen, dated 1570, belongs to the earl of Verulam. In the second group are many pieces of carpet knotting—called at the time “Turkey work”—imitating Oriental designs and made to cover chairs and stools. As the demand for carpets increased in the 18th century, factories were established at Paddington, Fulham, and Moorfields, near London, and at Exeter and Axminster in Devon. Axminster worked on well into the 19th century, when it merged with the Wilton Carpet Factory at Wilton, Wiltshire, which still operates. The industry dwindled and almost disappeared with the advent of mechanization until about 1880. The craft was revived by the English artist and poet William Morris. Later in the 19th century a factory opened in Donegal, Ireland; and during the 20th century many small rugs have been knotted by handicraft societies.

Scandinavia

Scandinavian work is similar in concept despite national differences of colour and motif. Abundant handmade products include floor coverings, coverlets, and upholstery for benches, chairs, stools, and pillows. Techniques dating from the Vikings (and probably imported by them from Turkey) are continued in Swedish and Finnish rugs, called rya rugs. Knotted work includes pieces with pile on either side, many symmetrically knotted on three warps, and braided and woven patchwork carpets with interwoven strips. Geometric designs, rooted in the native arts, are common, appearing, for example, in opulent “wedding carpets.” Design was also influenced by Dutch tapestry flower motifs.

Eastern Europe

Knotted Mazovian rugs of East Prussia show the strongest Oriental influence, though at the same time they are deeply rooted in peasant traditions. Many other textiles untouched by west European influence, however, came from southeast Poland, Ukraine, and southern Russia; some are characterized by ancient textile motifs (such as simple stripes) and forceful colour harmonies, others by geometric designs resembling those of the Orient. Kilims, or tapestry-woven carpets, are common in those areas, as they are in the Balkans. In Romania government promotion and the interest taken by contemporary artists in folk idiom stimulated modern production during the 20th century.

European folk carpets

Carpet making is so widespread in European folk art that it probably would have developed even without stimulus from the Orient. The most varied techniques are represented in these tradition-bound products, the designs of which remained unchanged for generations. The work includes floor coverings, chest covers and bedcovers, and draperies, most of modest size (or pieced together) and many made in sets. The colour scheme is very limited, for even the raw materials were homemade. Machine-made carpets in the later 19th century quickly engulfed home products, but a conscious revival and renewal followed in the 20th century.

North America

The technique of knotting has not been used by the Native Americans, but many tribes have been making flat-woven floor rugs and blankets since the earliest days of their known history. Before sheep were introduced in the 16th century and wool became dominant, the principal material was cotton, together with various fibres and dog’s hair. Indian designs are traditionally abstract, making much use of stripes and a zigzag, or “lightning,” motif. The colours are black, white, yellow, blue, tan, and red, the latter often dominant. Among the most skillful carpet makers are the Pueblo and Navajo peoples.

Rugs were made by the colonists in a variety of techniques: knitting; crocheting; braiding strips of material and then sewing the plaits together, either in blocks or in a spiral; and embroidering on a coarse-woven foundation. Hooking (drawing strips of material through a woven foundation) began around the turn of the 18th century and became very popular; early examples have floral, geometric, or animal designs and are very colourful. No knotted carpets were manufactured by the early settlers. In 1884, however, a factory established in Milwaukee (and later moved to New York City) began to weave carpets in traditional European designs. During the 1890s a branch of the English Wilton Royal Carpet Factory made Axminsters at Elizabethport, New Jersey; and a few beautiful, flat-woven carpets in French Baroque and Neoclassical designs were produced around the turn of the century by a tapestry factory in Williams Bridge, New York. After this, machine weaving, which began in the United States in the late 1700s, gradually displaced handweaving.