Journal

Recently we have been selected with the care of a highly important 20th century collection of modernist carpets. In the course of our investigative work we discovered pressure damage which had occurred in relation to use with heavy furniture. On further inspection it was found the wool in several of the collection to be made of stands of 20 μm (micron) diameter stands than wool found typically a standard carpet and oriental carpet wool of approx 30μm exacerbating difficulties of pressure marks since thicker tougher wool strands normally used in carpets are hardier and more resistant. That said it should be noted that wool cannot be crushed permanently and eventually with the correct non invasive treatment wool will revert back unlike fibres in some textiles.

The Handel and Hendrix House is a living museum in Brook Street, Mayfair London an address that both musicians shared albeit 200 years apart. It is a little known fact the Jimi Hendrix was a rug collector as evidenced in the photos of the time. Since the recreation of Hendix's old flat at the address about 6 years ago we have worked alongside the museum in the role of curator / donor. Finding antique rugs is difficult enough but the task of locating rugs from the late 1960s or early 1970s is certainly more challenging than one might imagine. In the B/W photo can be seen an Ardebil rug in the Shirvan / Azerbaijan manner of the period a duplicate of which has been searched for since the Hendrix room opened so far without success. In August 2021 we managed to procure on behalf of the Museum a very similar Caucasian rug circa 1970 in as new condition as seen centre in the colour photo. The search continues.....

Photos copyright #9966 Handel Hendrix House © Barrie Wentzell / Snap Galleries

We are delighted to have been invited to share additional space for our oversized carpets by our good friends at Lewis & Wood just down the road in Woodchester Stroud. Showing grand and gigantic carpets had become challenging at our Fomeside Stroud studio and the new space will enhance and extend our display facilities and be an overflow. Lewis & Wood are renowned UK fabric and paper printers with outreaches in Chelsea Harbour London and USA with whom we had previously shared design resources.

The Honourable East India Company's (HEIC) principal warehouse in the City of London was the Cutler Street complex, constructed in the late 18th century just outside the walls of the medieval city.

By the late Jack Haldane (Izmidlian): In my time at the P.L.A. (from 1948 onwards) the customs seals were made, as I remember it, of metal thin enough to be malleable, shaped roughly like the figure 8 except in the middle. One half of the seal had a lip all round. The labels were printed on to stout canvas. An stout needle would be threaded with strong twine and then forced through the fabric of the rug or carpet not far from a convenient corner. The loose ends were then tied in a knot and put onto one half of the seal. This would then be folded and the whole squashed together by a tool not unlike a pair of pliers. This would cause the lip to be squashed into the other half of the "8" and made the removal of the label impossible without destroying the seal.

 

The tickets came as a roll of stout cards, perforated and pre-printed, and with a hole punched them (I don't remember if they had an eyelet round the hole). This, too, would be affixed to the piece using the same stout twine and the same needle. The knot securing this in place was never sealed.

For most goods, the insertion of the needle caused little if any damage to the rug. On fine pieces the effect was certainly noticeable and on really fine items there is no question but that rugs were damaged. After all, how can a steel needle which was probably around 5 mm wide near the tip possibly get between the warps and wefts without there being a bad effect on these ?

When the goods were sent to the washers (Shahinian, Abadjian and possibly others) the washers' staff would staple the customs label to the rug or carpet, but remove and store the card labels. These would be put back on the piece after it was dry and ready to return to the appropriate consignors. These staples would have been of iron or steel, which is why they frequently left rust marks on the Customs label and, not so frequently,on the fabric of the rug of carpet.

I'm pretty sure that items imported before the war (and there were quite a few of these around in the late 1940s and early 1950s) were sealed on the same manner.

The late Jack Haldane 2012 assisted and recorded by Clive Rogers

One of our London West End customers asked us to assist in the supply of carpets to decorate a large pop up tent in Mayfair that will be Covid compliant in the run up to the easing of lockdown on 12th April 2021. Forward planning was essential requiring a clear plan and choice of carpets in colour and size. A very brief working window was allowed for a rapid install working around other contractors. Quality of fixing demanded a high level of security to ensure public safety and liability.

 

Hand-knotted Carpets are no longer made in the British Isles, the last in England being the Royal Wilton Carpet Company, closed 1960, and Donegal Carpets Ltd Killybegs Co.Donegal Eire which closed in 1987.