I A Zk lory An n 3 ci>mfe (Vecomtix^cArt ioru STERLING AND FRANCINE CLARJC ART INSTITUTE L1BRART AJt/r~ 3o Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute Library http://archive.org/details/handmaderugsOObowl HANDMADE RUGS HANDMADE RUGS By ELLA SHANNON BOWLES With Illustrations BOSTON LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 1927 Copyright, 1927, By Ella Shannon Bowles yl// n 3 H w g H CO B to r" 1 B fa « fa g CO B H £ fa fa P H < S CO M p £ pq fa THE HISTORY OF HOOKED RUGS 7 Antiques, in a note appended to an article, "A Memory of Grandmother's Mats," by Gertrude DeWager, published in June 1925: "The history of hooked rugs is buried so deeply beneath unsubstan- tial tradition and romantic legend as almost to defy efforts to unearth reliable fragments of it." This statement is borne out by other authorities. The secretary of the Essex Institute at Salem, Massa- chusetts, wrote me that he had no information as to date in regard to hooked rugs. The librarian of the New Hampshire Historical Society wrote, 'Un- fortunately we are unable to date any of our hooked rugs." The curator of the Memorial Hall at Deer- field, Massachusetts, answered my question in regard to her knowledge of the age of hooked rugs by saying : "Different kinds of rugs were made in the nineties and probably earlier. At that time they were sold and brought a considerable income to the makers. My mother had hooked rugs made by a relative in Vermont — I think in the seventies." But there are authorities who claim that the hooked rug has great age. Let me quote from one of the booklets written by Mr. Ralph W. Burnham of Ipswich, Massachusetts: — "Several prominent writers upon the subject strongly contend that the deservedly popular floor covering antedates the Amer- ican Revolution. A still more venturesome writer of reputation asserts that hooked rugs were in evidence earlier than the year 1700." 8 HANDMADE RUGS In an article, "Hooked Rugs," published in the Antiquarian in May 1925, Mary Johnson Carey tells us that "it was among the first floor coverings to grace an American hearthstone, and the date of its advent may be placed in the early part of the eight- eenth century." It is pleasant to believe this, even if we cannot prove it, and I see no reason to doubt that women who knew the arts of making samplers, embroidering coats of arms upon cherished bits of satin, and work- ing "mourning pieces," did hooked-in or drawn-in pictures upon loosely woven linens, to be used as floor coverings in their "best rooms." The early nineteenth century at least produced home-knitted mittens, which were decorated with hooked-in pat- terns of gay wools. I like to think that it was the desire for creative expression, as well as the proverbial Yankee thrift, that inspired the handicraft workers of bygone days in their making of rugs. When sleety rains beat against the windowpanes of low-eaved farmhouses, or drifting snows shut out the rest of the world, what more fascinating occupation than planning designs, coloring fabrics with vegetable dyes made at home from barks and herbs, and then lovingly working out the patterns with bits of wool! Some of the rugs were poorly made and crude in coloring, but others were works of art and expressed the simple individu- ality of a peaceful and contented people. THE HISTORY OF HOOKED RUGS 9 I am of the opinion that any rug, if the design was original, was a form of art. Professor Mason says : "The first woman making a change in any natural object for the gratification which it afforded her is the starting point of three evolutions: that of art itself, whether textile, plastic, or musical; of herself, in the practice of it, growing out of a mere imitator to be a creator; of the universal or public apprecia- tion of art, or what might be called racial or tribal imagination." Katharine Lee Bates tells us in her American Lit- erature that "a dozen factories were gathered into the farmhouse kitchen, where thin-lipped women baked and brewed, washed and ironed, canned and pickled, compounded the family physic of 'snail- water,' with ruby jellies to obliterate its taste, spun, wove, knit, quilted, made candles, soap, sausages, rag carpets, feather beds, and were by turns seamstresses, milli- ners, tailors, with frequent calls away to dairy, poultry yard, and milking stool." So it lightens the picture a little, I think, to believe that women of old New England responded to the creative urge, and designed and executed works of art in the form of hooked rugs for use in their own homes and for their daughters' "setting-out." There is one test which you may safely apply to hooked rugs when you are trying to tell a little about their age, and that is the kind of material used to make the foundation. We are told that cotton cloth 10 HANDMADE RUGS was not made in England until after the year 17()0, so it seems probable that it was not in common use in America until the beginning of the nineteenth century. It would be safe to say that a rug hooked in on homespun and home-woven linen was probably made during the period when such materials were manufactured. But there is one point against the statement - - the thrift of New England women. I once found a rug made on old-time cloth, while evi- dence proved that the rug was not very old, for the economical worker had used for her foundation some home-w T oven cloth found in the house. Burlaps, too, varied in kind; and after a little experience you can tell the older type from that more recently made. I have discovered no record of hooked rugs in old wills; but in the inventory of the estate of Nathaniel Shannon, who died in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in the latter part of the eighteenth century, I find listed, together with a Negro man named Prince, valued at four hundred pounds, a woman and child, — woman called Diana, — valued at three hundred pounds, one half dozen "turkey work'd chairs," and among the other household furnishings, two rugs valued at twelve pounds and ten shillings. There is absolutely no proof that these rugs were of the hooked variety, but the mentioning of them in the inventory is interesting to the collector. Hooked rugs were made by the German women of early Pennsylvania, and examples of their work are O £ i— i H 02 i— i H i— i H «! H K O H K H O o I— I 02 02 W « Oh Q M c c w H P — 12 HANDMADE RUGS be traced to the fine embroideries and brocaded stuffs used in dress materials brought from France and England. The sampler, too, played its part in sug- gesting ideas for early rugs. Precise and formal trees, set baskets of flowers, houses, and sometimes figures of people were introduced into rug designs, and early presidential campaigns led to the use of the patriotic symbols sometimes seen in hooked rugs of an early date. French glassmaking influenced the designs used on articles made by the New England and Sandwich Glass Companies. In the same manner Aubusson carpet designs were copied by New England rug- makers. The woman who had ceased to think that the vines and scroll designs which her mother copied from the needlework on her petticoat were beautiful turned to the new "bough ten" carpets for her patterns. Occasionally an ambitious worker attempted the construction of an entire carpet for her parlor. I have seen the remains of one that was unusually beautiful. Evidently it was taken up when com- mercial carpeting came into existence, and now the small piece which remains has been made into a rug. The carpet was made of squares of black lightweight broadcloth, such as was used for "go-to-meeting" suits for men during the period preceding the Civil War. The blocks were about twelve inches square, and at the centre of each was pulled in the design of THE HISTORY OF HOOKED RUGS 13 a rose with leaves surrounding it. The squares were set together with strips of canvas, filled in, "hit-or- miss," and a border of the hooked-in hit-or-miss framed the whole. From the State of Maine came another unusual rug. It was about sixty years old and beautifully made. The design was inspired, I am sure, by one from an Aubusson carpet, but the outstanding feature was the fact that the work upon the rug was pulled in through fine unbleached cotton cloth. A few years ago hooked rugs had little value except to their makers, who prized them as coverings for the yellow-painted floors of their forerooms and kitchens. "I gave my son's wife a hooked rug and she used it in front of the kitchen stove," an old woman told me. "It was lots of work to make it. I thought she might have put it in her bedroom!" This shows how little hooked rugs were prized in remote rural districts until collectors and interior decorators began to seek them for use with early American furniture. A gentleman who spent some years in Newfound- land told me that in the spring of the year wives of the fishermen put "mats," as they called them, into the frames. This man really did some constructive work by directing the women in the use of less bril- liant colors and in drawing more pleasing designs for them. At that time the workers in the locality made these mats or rugs simply for their own homes, 14 HANDMADE RUGS and they envied a certain worker who received the price of ten dollars for one which she had produced. The craft of making hooked rugs is not forgotten. New England women learned the art from their mothers and grandmothers. May they teach it to I heir daughters! II COLORS FADED AND FRESH The Poet stood in the unkempt dooryard of the desolate house where the auction was in progress. He was clinging fondly to a couple of garishly colored hooked rugs, which were carefully draped over his angular right arm. A stranger might have wondered at his interest in the crude products, but I understood. For I too knew the story of the drab woman who made them. In a life of tragedy so vivid that it would not ring true if written, these rugs stood for the only bits of joy and color that the maker knew. Denied by an eccentric, crabbed husband the delight of "flxing-up" the house, she hid in the corn chamber her rug frames and odds and ends of cloth which she had surrepti- tiously dyed. Then, when her puritanical spouse went to town, she feverishly worked to create her vision. And up there in the corn chamber, after her death, were found the rugs — crude expressions of a beauty-starved life! But manufacturing hooked rugs was more than the urge of New England women's creative instincts, for the craft provided entertainment and occupation for the long, lonely hours of primitive country life. The New England hooked rugs varied in shape. The most common shape seen was rectangular. Square rugs were sometimes made. Occasionally a 16 HANDMADE RUGS worker produced a round or an oval rug, and octag- onal or hexagonal rugs were frequently seen. One of the most unusual rugs that I have ever known was shaped like an octagon. It was a genuine antique, with a charming floral design in soft colorings, and was finished with a homemade fringe of black yarn. Per- haps the most uncommon of all was the type having an edge formed by scrolls after the fashion of centre- pieces finished with buttonhole-stitch embroidery. I was surprised to have someone ask me how these rugs of odd shape were made. The answer is simple. The desired shape was drawn on a rectangular piece of burlap, and after the hooking was completed and the work was removed from the frames the rug was cut out and completed in the manner of finishing all hooked rugs — a method which I shall describe later. Of course a rug w T ith a scalloped edge required great care in finishing, but the method used was the same as that employed in completing the bottom of the scalloped dresses popular a few seasons ago. Half -rugs or door rugs were made in great quanti- ties during the seventies. As the name signifies, they w r ere half -ovals in shape and were used before doors. Sometimes they were decorated only with simple floral or animal designs, but frequently the worker was more ambitious and added the word welcome, the phrase good luck, or call again; or, if she had a religious turn of mind, she occasionally pulled in the sentences, God Is Love or Jesus Dwells Here. COLORS FADED AND FRESH 17 Readers who love Rebecca, the whimsical child heroine created by Kate Douglas Wiggin, will recall the rug described in More Chronicles of Rebecca: — "Rebecca could see the Cames' brown farmhouse from Mrs. Baxter's sitting-room window. The little- traveled road with strips of tufted green between the wheel tracks curled dustily up to the very doorstep, Owned by Miss Sybil Nash "welcome" rugs greeted the guest at the doors of new england farmhouses and inside the screen door of pink mosquito netting was a wonderful drawn-in rug, shaped like a half pie, with 'Welcome' in saffron letters on a green ground." Hooked rugs varied in size. I have described one carpet, although hooked carpets were rare. One well- known collector has told me of a church carpet in Nova Scotia which was hooked in by the women of the congregation; and in an antique shop in Vermont 18 HANDMADE RUGS I saw a hooked hit-or-miss rug large enough com- pletely to cover the floor of a small room. Hall runners, usually ornamented with conventional pat- terns, were sometimes made by women of the mid- Victorian period, and modern workers have copied the idea for country homes. A most unusual and interest- ing stair runner, bearing hooked designs of birds and animals, is in the summer home of Mrs. Parker YYhittemore at West Gloucester, Massachusetts. I have seen rugs nearly large enough to cover the floors of small rooms. Let me describe two. One made during the Civil War had a black background and a floral pattern of roses and leaves. The rug almost covered the kitchen floor of the house where I found it. Yes — kitchen, but such an immaculate New Hampshire kitchen, into which a bit of dust or scrap of lint dared not venture! The other rug was larger, but not so old; its colors were lighter, and one interesting feature w T as the rare shade of mauve used in the background border. This rug now occupies a place of honor in the country home of a well-known American novelist. But not all early New England rugs were large. One of the prettiest small antique rugs that I have found was about eighteen inches long and carried a pattern of the blossoms of the snowball bush upon a light brown background. Modern designers are making rugs in all sizes to meet every need. One expert is putting upon the COLORS FADED AND FRESH 21 market a very small rug-pattern, especially for nov- ices in the work. By starting with a small rug, the worker does not become discouraged while the hook- ing-in process is new to her. Large rugs like those which I have described would take many hours of tedious labor, and should be attempted only by an experienced worker. The question of color in hooked-rug making is most important. Lovely shades have been produced in old-time rugs, especially those created during the Victorian period, when gaudy colors were in fashion, by the fading of the dyes originally used. The rug- maker of the present day may find it difficult to keep her own coloring soft and mellow, yet a rug loses its characteristic beauty if bright colors are pulled in. In speaking of color, Helen Albee, the creator of the Abnakee rugs, says : — "A careful study of the effects of colors upon each other will show that colors which are in themselves beautiful are often inharmonious when combined. Also, a little of a color may be good, when a larger proportion seems to destroy the balance of harmony. Success in this matter is largely a matter of close observation and experience, although some persons have a natural feeling or instinct regarding color, which is seldom in error." Would you have the will power, after spending days in making a drawn-in rug, to hang it up in a 22 HANDMADE RUGS window where the sun shone brightly for hours, or to lay it out on the tin roof in rain and sunshine? Hut that's exactly the method of one woman who manufactures lovely rugs. I can't tell you whether or not the results would be always perfectly satis- factory, but I do know that this particular worker achieves a soft blending of colors that makes 1km* rugs resemble family heirlooms. However, if you use sub- dued shades, or dye and experiment until you gel just the hues that you need, there is no reason why your own rugs should not be things of exquisite beaut v. «/ Excellent ideas for color combinations are given by the Textile Color Card Association and have been published in a booklet on Modern Home Dyeing, written by Martha Jane Phillips. The chart offers many suggestions to the rug-maker who has not been trained in color. Color Background Harmonious Combinations Navy blue Saxe blue, old gold, orange, carmine Negro brown Buff, peacock blue, purple, topaz Pearl gray Peacock blue, jade green, tur- quoise blue, old blue Purple Burnt orange, honey, old gold, castor, Negro brown, yellow Reseda green Chamois, purple Salmon Pearl gray, mode, steel Taupe Bright blue, amethyst, burnt orange, castor, laurel pink COLORS FADED AND FRESH 23 Orange Blue-green Red American Beauty Amethyst Apricot Beige Bottle green Brown Buff Burnt orange Copenhagen blue Chestnut brown Delft blue Ecru Heliotrope Laurel Mahogany Gold, blue, violet, brown, yellow Purple Blue, dark green, gold Fawn Delft blue, gold, orchid, tur- quoise Beaver Peacock blue Apricot, topaz Golden brown, tan, electric blue, burnt orange Orange, Burgundy, Copenhagen, Negro brown Mahogany, peacock blue, taupe, purple Buff Beaver, fawn, champagne, tur- quoise, apricot Amethyst, gold Seal brown Beige Gray Peacock, pearl gray, terra cotta, burnt orange A. H. Church says: "Let it be remembered, how- ever, that no rigid rules of cast iron should be allowed to trammel the imagination of the artist, to whom there are many things more important than rules, such as observation, knowledge, and experiment; a cultivated taste, sound judgment, and light fancy; an appreciation of what is meant by balance, distribu- tion, and reticence of tone." So, for the reasons expressed in the quotation, I U HANDMADE RUGS will not presume to plan color schemes for the individual worker. I will, however, offer some suggestions which have been helpful to other crafts- women. Ivory, cream, tan, fawn, soft browns, and black are excellent colors for backgrounds. A tan centre, combined with old rose, sage green, bronze green, cream, pale yellow, and wood brown is lovely. Old rose, warm golden brown, and olive combine effec- tively. Reds, vivid greens, and yellows should be used sparingly; but a judicious blending of rich soft browns, rusty yellows, dull rose, deep mauve, ivory, velvety black, deep blues, gray-blue, and dull green will take any rug out of the realm of the common- place. Bits of black used to outline certain portions of the design add character to the rug. Helen Albee suggests that, if a dull rich color pre- dominates, rich dark colors should be used through the whole scheme ; but that, if the body color is of a light tone, soft light tones of other colors are most pleasing. In her booklet on the Abnakee rugs she tells of combinations of old rose, warm golden browns, and olive; of a light Gobelin blue worked with ivory, old pink, and a light dull olive, with outlines either of dark yellow-brown or very dark bronze-green; of an ivory centre with an old-pink border worked in green; of a tan centre combined with old rose, sage green, bronze green, light yellow, cream, and dark brown outlines. COLORS FADED AND FRESH 25 "Look around you," an artist once said to me, "and notice how Nature uses her colors." As I have said before, these ideas are merely sug- gestions. If you have the rudiments of the qualities which make an artist or a creator, you will desire to plan your own color scheme and give expression to your own individuality as you experiment with "yel- low, the color of gold and fire, symbolizing reason; green, the color of vegetable life, symbolizing utility and labor; red, the color of blood, symbolizing war and love; and blue, the color of the sky, symboliz- ing spiritual life, duty, and religion." Ill DESIGNS FOR HOOKED ItUGS 'Nothing made by man's hand can be indifferent; it must be either beautiful and elevating or ugly and degrading," said William Morris. This statement may be applied as well to hooked rugs as to any other forms of handicraft. Designs on antique hooked rugs are as varied as the personalities of the women who created them. Some were ornate; some were crude; others were beautiful and well balanced. Historical, landscape, and picture rug-designs are most interesting to the collector. The landscape rugs are quaint and the designs are varied. A bit of fence and woodland, a house and trees like those seen on old samplers, a path leading into the woods, a ship at sea, the village green, a field with moun- tains beyond, are a few subjects used. Mary John- son Carey refers to a brick-house design, which she describes as showing a "prim Colonial house occu- pying the centre of a rectangle. From the chimneys of the house curly puffs of smoke issue, and on either side are stiff trees and a picket fence." One designer of modern rugs, Mr. Ralph Burnham, has developed the idea of these old picture rugs and added to his patterns stage coaches and taverns, fireside scenes, and even a hunting picture. Environment influenced designers in their choice of subjects. The rugs made by the women of the DESIGNS FOR HOOKED RUGS 27 Cranberry Islands, Maine, were typical of seafaring life, their designs being suggested by lines left on the sand by the tide, by waves lapping on the beach, by seaweeds, and shells, and the tips of distant sails seen at sea. I am indebted to Mary Johnson Carey for this in- formation from her article on hooked rugs published in the Antiquarian for May 1925: 'The whaling industry, which centred in New Bedford, Nantucket, and Long Island, claiming nearly all able-bodied men in the New England seaport towns, has been pic- turesquely commemorated in the hooked rugs. Made by the women during the long months of their men's absence, their destiny was often the cabin of some whaling ship. A full-rigged schooner usually formed the central part of the design, and appropriate nauti- cal objects, such as anchors, cables, etc., appear in the border." Rugs perfected by workers in Labrador, under the patronage of Dr. Grenfell, show how the modern hooked rug is influenced by environment for its pat- terns. Not long ago I saw one, used in the nursery of a country home in the White Mountains, showing the picture of a dog team — the sledge, the snow, and evergreen trees. Did you know that the laying of the Atlantic tele- graph cable influenced the patterns used in Ameri- can handicrafts? The cable pattern is frequently seen on pieces of Sandwich glass, and it is sometimes 28 HANDMADE RUGS found on hooked rugs. Mr. Robert P. Peckett of Sugar Hill, New Hampshire, owns a rare rug bearing an exquisite floral pattern framed with an endless- chain border, which surely must have developed from the Atlantic-cable idea. The hit-or-miss rug was made, I am sure, to use up odds and ends of left-over materials. As the name implies, the centres were variegated, but the borders were usually of solid black. I have seen one hit-or-miss rug with a star in the centre and the remainder of the work done with many different colors. Conventional patterns were the simplest designs used by the old-time rug-makers. I have found hooked rugs marked off with a brick; patterns made by drawing around dessert plates and " butter chips"; designs carried out in diamonds, squares, and ovals. One very uncommon pattern was made by a woman in a New Hampshire village. She told me that she dropped a spot of ink upon a paper and, folding the paper, cut out the motif formed. This she arranged upon her background, gaining an Oriental effect. "Down East" a rainbow rug was made, and you will at once guess that it shaded in the prismatic colors of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. Shell rugs are common in Nova Scotia, and the sunshine- and-shadow design, made of small brightly colored squares upon a dark background, is also a popular pattern. You can unearth animal rugs in any New England fa w H h M w Q «< *h S cfi O p w « fa 1—1 P 5? o < 1—1 r, ti CO H o w fa n 05 P 02 fa o fa 1— I O - o o y fa £ W H ■si 'A fc % tH D W H © <*> O fa o M 02 05 fa fa e Q ;C I Q fa fa P fa fa t3 e fc S M v. O 00 « | s 1 fa DESIGNS FOR HOOKED RUGS 33 village. They were made in great quantities during the middle of the nineteenth century, and chickens, ducklings, cows, kittens, and horses posed that their portraits might be preserved in worsteds. Only once was I shown a rug upon which lounged an animal whose like I had never seen before; his proud owner told me that he was a lion! Only his flowing mane bore any resemblance to the king of the jungle. He might have been almost anything from a gentle tabby cat to a wild dog. Rut his creator was not lacking in imagination, for she had added to the un- happy appearance of the rug by sewing yellow glass buttons in place for the beast's eyes. The workman- ship was unexcelled and the rug was soft in texture, but I felt that long hours of patient labor had been wasted. So often animal patterns are not entirely satisfactory. I have seen an adorable pattern showing a perky kitten lapping milk from a blue bowl, and many door rugs upon which sat majestic house cats. Even par- rots, birds of paradise, and peacocks have invaded the realm of the hooked rug. The floral patterns made by our great-grand- mothers were the loveliest of all. They were ar- ranged in wreaths and sprays, which were sometimes combined with corner designs and scrolls, and occa- sionally the horn of plenty was adapted for use in the pattern. During the period when young America was first beginning to feel her opulence, the horn of a 4 HANDMADE RUGS plenty was a popular design in the products of many crafts, and it is natural that it should appear on hooked rugs. 'I made lots o' horn-o'-plenty rugs when I was a young girl," said a woman who has spent nearly ninety years in the New Hampshire hills. ( Would you like to know how I marked oft' my designs? I laid a piece of paper down on a horn-o'-plenty somebody had hooked in on a rug, and pricked over the design with a needle. Then I took a piece of burnt wood and rubbed over the holes, and my pattern would show on my foundation." A lovely antique rug owned by Mr. Peckett has a pattern of pansies sprinkled here and there upon the background. In some of the old rugs, wreaths and bouquets of flowers were hooked higher than the background. A beautiful rug of this type, once ex- hibited as an almost perfect example of an old hooked rug, is owned by Mrs. Daisie Colby of Fran- conia, New Hampshire. This rug has the added charm of being a family heirloom. Exquisite are the designs inspired by the posies of old New England gardens. Wreaths of roses, sprays of lilies, bluebells, heartsease, "pinies," yellow daisies, : 'laylocks," and hollyhocks run riot on backgrounds of soft gray, mellow tan, old ivory, and black. In these designs as in no others is the hand of the artist apparent. At an auction in Vermont I saw one of these floral rugs which filled me with the spirit of O o H Q H w H M O H p o w o Ifl H /. O W «! 02 H W H X a M y -" — ^ C ti hI c c & o 02 p y £ z •< EH £ "J a ti Q Q r— P o X w 1— 1 X HOW TO MAKE A HOOKED RUG 79 which adorned foreroom floors, and of basket quilts arranged over plump live-goose-feather beds. The design is so simple that almost anyone who can write can make it, if she carefully studies the picture. The border is three and one quarter inches wide. The design, taken as a whole, is twenty-three inches across the widest part and seventeen inches in height. First, we must make a pattern for the basket, which has a base eight and one half inches wide and a top eleven inches wide. It is six inches high. Block it roughly upon a piece of paper. Then cut it out, shaping it with the scissors as you cut. Choose a piece of heavy brown wrapping paper, the size of the rug inside the border. Indicate the upper line of the lower border, and place the basket pattern two and three quarters inches above it. As you study the picture, you will notice that five of the flowers are circular in shape. Cut paper patterns for them. The flower at the right of the basket is three and three quarters inches wide, and the one above it is three inches wide. The flower at the upper left of the design is three and one quarter inches wide. Above the basket are two circular flowers. The lower one is three and one quarter inches wide and the one above it two and three quarters inches. The buds are five inches long and one and three quarters inches wide. The bell-shaped flower at the top is six inches long and two inches wide, and the one on the left is five inches long and 80 HANDMADE RUGS three inches wide. The leaves vary a little in size, but not greatly in shape. The larger ones are four and one quarter inches long and the smaller ones three inches long. Cut patterns for the leaves, and arrange them with the flower patterns upon the wrap- ping paper as they are placed in the picture of the rug. Trace around them, and then draw the steins. Treat the wrapping paper with a wash of boiled linseed oil and a little japan dryer, applied with a wide brush. Cut out the motifs of the design with a sharp knife, but draw the stems upon the burlap after you have stenciled the motifs. For the stenciling use liquid bluing and a stencil brush with short stubby bristles. Fasten the burlap firmly with thumb tacks on the top of an old wooden table and tack the stencil upon it. Holding the brush in a vertical position, pat in the bluing, begin- ning in the centre of the design. When you remove the stencil be sure to lift it straight up, as to let it slide, even a little, blurs the work. One woman who produces lovely hooked rugs told me of her method of making basket patterns. She buys a piece of cretonne w T ith a basket in the design, cuts out the selected motifs, including the basket, and, placing them upon the burlap, traces around them with a carpenter's pencil. The tools for making hooked rugs have already been discussed in this book. If you study the photo- graph of the worker at the frames on page 71 you HOW TO MAKE A HOOKED RUG 81 will understand exactly how the burlap is sewn into them. You might easily spoil a good rug by lack of care in this step. Re-read the directions previously given (page 73). Our model rug is made of all-wool flannel. The material was purchased in its undyed state and col- ored to suit the taste of the designer. The border is indigo blue, with three rows of dark blue on the edge of the rug and two rows of black on the inner border line. The background is soft fawn, and the basket is in shades of rich brown. The circular flower at the right of the basket and the one in the upper left por- tion of the design are worked in shades of rich blue with yellow centres. The circular flower on the up- per right and the bell-shaped flower at the left are worked out in shades of purple. The two flowers above the basket and the buds are lovely "pinky v orange, while the bell-shaped flower at the top is deep yellow. Great care was used in selecting the greens for the model rug, and I suggest that you experiment with your dyes until you get deep har- monious shades of this color. Whether you use homemade or commercial dyes, experiment with your colors and always make notes of the results for later reference. You will find such notes of untold value if you continue in the work. Look over the color directions in the book and those that come with dye packages. Select those that seem to meet your requirements and then try them. S2 HANDMADE RUGS To vary the intensity of the colors, New England housewives sometimes wrapped parts of the goods to be dyed in corn husks before immersing in the dye bath, and the method is not to be scorned by modern workers. For your first attempt at rug-making, do not cut your rags too fine. The flannel strips in the model rug were cut about one half inch in width. You will find that strips of this size will pull in easily and fill in rapidly. Of course you will see at once that more material will be needed for the background than any other part of the design. If we use new flannel, one yard in width, we must provide two and one half yards for the background; one and one half yards for the blue border; one fourth of a yard for the brown basket; one fourth of a yard for the black edge inside the border and for the accenting of the flowers; one half yard for each of the two shades of green with which the leaves are worked; and one fourth yard for each of the colors shown in the flowers. If we are not buy- ing new goods for the rug, but are picking up odds and ends around the house in thrifty New England style, we shall need more material and must allow half again as much filling as we have outlined. Now that the design is stenciled upon the burlap, the rug stretched like a quilt in its frames, and the material for pulling in is dyed the right shades, you are ready to begin the actual work of hooking in. HOW TO MAKE A HOOKED RUG 83 You have spent a day in drawing the design and sewing the rug into the frames and another in color- ing the goods, and I know that you are anxious to see the work begin to grow. Place the frames over the backs of four chairs, as already suggested, or from one table to another, or rest them across light carpenter's horses at a height convenient for you to work easily. Turn to the pic- ture of the rug hook and the method of pulling the burlap through the canvas on page 74. In our model rug, the loops are hooked in one half inch above the foundation. This rug is so small that it can be hooked without rolling. First work the basket, using at least three shades of brown. Make the outline of the basket and a zigzag strip across it of the darkest shade. Blend the two lighter shades in the body. Work the blue flowers in three shades of blue. You can use up the lighter blues of the border for them. Two shades of purple are used in the bellflower, with the lighter shade in the centre. The yellow bellflower has only one tone value, but is relieved by the deep green of the calyx. Two shades are used in the lower pinky- orange flower, but the upper one has a yellow centre with two rows of the pinky orange on the outside. After you have completed the flowers, work the leaves, then the stems. The background is pulled in next, and the hooking is completed by making the border. You will find it a little more difficult to pull 84 HANDMADE RUGS through the two thicknesses of the border than to hook the design and groundwork, but "when it's done, it's done," and the finish is neat and pleasing. When your last loop is pulled through, remove the rug from the frames. Place a dam)) cloth on the wrong side and press with a hot iron. Your rug, a real treasure, to be handed down to your daughter and your daughter's daughter, is completed. VI COLLECTING HOOKED RUGS The Lover of Hooked Rugs, his wife, and I were at a country auction in a tiny New Hampshire town on the Connecticut River. A throng of people, inhabit- ants of surrounding villages, summer residents, and the ever present collectors of antiques, watched with interest as the auctioneer held up a perfectly made, carefully preserved, old-time hooked rug. A number of the spectators desired that treasure, and the bidding went rapidly on. Finally the Lover of Rugs, with a grin of delight, wrote out a check, and the prize was ours to examine at our leisure. It seemed absurd that anyone should presume to walk upon that thing of beauty ! Upon a background the color of cream skimmed from a pan of Jersey milk, was a wreath of old-fashioned posies, pulled in with colors of exquisite hue. A black "endless chain" — which the new owner told us proudly added to its value — formed a border. The colors were softly mellowed; the design was simple, yet satisfying; the work was carefully done, as finely executed as a bit of Spanish tapestry. The texture of the rug was as soft as Lyons velvet. It was a splendid specimen of the kind of rugs made by our great-grandmothers. The hooked-rug mania is sweeping the country with as much spirit as the interest in early American glass! You have only to try to collect rugs to find 86 HANDMADE RUGS out how everybody is looking for them. (Jone is the day when a well-made specimen could be unearthed at any country auction, or purchased for the prover- bial song from the white-aproned mistress of some outlying farmhouse. A notice of a country auction inserted in the local paper will bring collectors and antique-dealers from miles around. Oh, yes, I know, you may be one of the exceptional persons who boast of luck in "picking up" a rug. You are exceptional ! If you are collecting hooked rugs, you are collect- ing for one of a number of reasons: either you have started a collection of genuine antiques and wish to add to it; you are collecting them because you are interested in all forms of old American handicraft; you are collecting because your best friend is, and you don't wish to be outdone; you are collecting just because you simply love the charm and quaintness of the rugs themselves; or you are working to get the right color note in some room, or to match your chintz hangings. If you are a collector of the last sort, you can get exactly what you desire from any of the well-known designers or you can make rugs yourself. If you are the first kind of collector, only poking about in nooks and crannies and unearthing your finds yourself will meet your needs — that is, of course, unless you have a fat and portly pocketbook, when your dealer may find wonderful specimens for you. Then part of your joy is gone. DO g p d ° b Q 03 5 § as B to co 1-5 B H CO s s g H o w t) to o w M •< P a g i-f < P p COLLECTING HOOKED RUGS 91 Usually it is inheriting a hooked rug made by your grandmother or great-grandmother that starts you collecting. Perhaps at first you did n't quite realize the value of your heirloom, when along came an enthusiastic friend and pointed out the error of your ways. A woman living in New York wrote me of such an experience with a hooked rug: "As a child, I remember that this rug lay before the outside kitchen door to protect our linoleum," she said. "After my marriage it was rescued from our garage one Sunday through a friend of ours who is a connoisseur of rugs, and who remarked to my husband, 'Does your wife know you have that out here?' It had been placed up behind the seat of our little open roadster, for the comfort of the beloved Irish terrier who always accompanied us on our drives. 'Reddy' no longer rides on a hooked rug!" I have heard many interesting stories concerning the curious places in which collectors have discovered such rugs. A woman found three rolled away under the eaves in an old attic where she had been allowed to rummage. The owner remembered that these rugs were taken up when the parlor carpet was purchased. One day, while driving on a back road in a New Hampshire town popularly nicknamed "Bungy," a lover of antiques met a man with a basket of apples in the back of his wagon, and over the apples was thrown a somewhat worn but beautiful rug. Then 02 HANDMADE RUGS and there she stopped him, and a business trans- action took place which made her the owner of the covering of that basket. Country antique shops offer an opportunity for finding rugs, and once in a while a visit to a farm- house will disclose a rug which the owner is willing to sell. A friend of mine conceived the idea of inserting notices in remote country papers to the effect that he was looking for hooked rugs. He received all kinds: some old, some new, some beau- tiful, some crude. Out of the many sent, however, he found but four that met his needs. "Just what shall I look for in hooked rugs, when I am collecting?'" you ask. Age, beauty of design and craftsmanship, and good condition of the rug are some of the qualities sought. I have already told you of the method of estimating age by the foundation material. Designs will tell you something. You will soon learn to judge by experience. I spoke of the undipped rugs as being older than the sheared. That is not an infallible rule, however, for many modern workers use old methods. If the rug's colors were produced by vegetable dyes, it is usually safe to say that it is quite old. The old dyes are easy to distinguish: you can always tell butternut brown. While speaking of coloring, I might mention a fact told me by one collector. She bought a beautiful old rug of which she was very proud, but, to her dismay, found upon examination that it had been w fa al S3 fa fa ° fa 02 O < 93 1 * § fa a O COLLECTING HOOKED RUGS 95 touched up with paints to get the tones desired by the dealer. The condition of a rug will tell you something of its age, for in many cases, even with the best of care, breaks will be found in the foundation. Don't worry about that, for rugs can be repaired. The first step in renovating a threadbare rug with ragged edges and unsightly holes is to clean it. This can be accomplished by washing it in lukewarm water, made sudsy with a reliable brand of soap flakes, or it may be sent directly to a professional cleaner. If you use the first method, spread the rug on the ground or upon the floor and scrub it with a stiff floor brush dipped in suds. I have washed much-soiled rugs in a tub of soapy water and rinsed them a number of times in clear baths. The brush- scrubbing method is better, however, unless the rug is very dirty. After the washing process the rug should be hung over a heavy line to dry out of doors. In many cases the worn part of a hooked rug shows first on the edges. It can be mended by apply- ing eight-inch strips of burlap along the outside of the rug. The strips should be neatly joined until a length long enough to surround the rug is made. The burlap is placed about two inches under the edge of the rug and sewed with heavy thread to the foundation material. The ragged edges of the rug are then cut and felled down upon the new burlap. You must use great care in sewing, and hold the 96 HANDMADE RUGS rug so that there shall be no pulling or puckering. If the border has a distinct design, draw the needed lines upon the fresh burlap. Then try to match the colors of the old rug, using dyes if necessary. The hooking in now begins. It is done exactly as described in the previous chapter, except that the rug is not placed in the frames, but held on a table. Hook until within two inches of the edge of the burlap strip, and hem back the edge in the same way that you would finish a new rug. If you find a hole in the centre or other part of an old rug, carefully apply a piece of new burlap to the back, and after trimming the edges of the hole, sew them down upon the patch. Then hook in your design, following the colors closely. Cover the back of the newly hooked part with cloth to make it more durable in both the mended edge and the patch. It may be necessary to clip the loops slightly to make them the same height as those in the original hooking. Pressing with a damp cloth and a hot iron on the wrong side of a mended rug adds to its appearance. I have sometimes been asked how hooked rugs should be cared for. My answer is, "Use them, but with the same judgment you would display in caring for other articles in your home." Do not shake a hooked rug, — or a braided one either, — but brush it carefully with a stiff whisk broom. Prices? Oh, I can't tell you that! As with all American antiques, the demand for them sets the ^ s W < H hi O K W H w W u Q O PATCHWORK AND BUTTON RUGS 137 and for that reason should be listed with them. They are made of home-manufactured braid, applied in patterns upon a foundation. Half -inch bias strips of woolen cloth are cut and sewed together. The strips are gathered closely through the centre, using a thread which will not break from the pulling neces- sary to bring the gathering into place. This gathered strip is then rolled between the palms of the hands until it is formed into a kind of braid. Any kind of cloth of firm texture may be used for the background, and a rough design may be marked upon it to gauge your pattern. You will find that large, simple pat- terns are the most satisfactory for this type of rug, and if you are an amateur, you had best sew upon your background alternate rows of pleasing colors, finished with a black border, for sewing the chenille braid upon the background requires some ingenuity. After the braid is applied, it is clipped in order that the rug may have a uniform surface. If you are one of the persons who can remember back to the days when the tin peddler drove his cart, with its shining array of tin dishes, glass hand- lamps, and odds and ends, up to your grandmother's door, you know the period when button rugs came into being. I feel certain that these were invented by some economical woman who wished to use up scraps of cloth too small for braiding and too heavy for drawing in. They were made by appliqueing "buttons" made of three circles of cloth upon a 138 HANDMADE RUGS foundation of heavy material. The rugs were cut in different shapes. My grandmother had two octag- onal button rugs which ornamented the floor of the shuttered parlor. One of them was placed before a mantel upon which were arranged two delicate vases of Bristol glass, filled with dried feather grass and life everlasting, a Majolica vase containing three peacock feathers, two small spark lamps of Sandwich glass, and a nondescript statuette of a child and a lamb. Grandmother evidently had an eye for har- mony; both of those rugs were carefully carried out in shades of brown, tan, and fawn. A very beautiful button rug belongs to an elderly woman in Franconia, New Hampshire. It is oblong in shape, and delicate colors with blue predominat- ing are used for the buttons. The colors are arranged to form a pattern of large diamonds, and the ends of the rug are finished with a handsome fringe of gray yarn. Button rugs are very pretty for bedroom use, as the color scheme may be carried out to match hang- ings. Unfortunately, they will not stand so much hard usage as braided and hooked rugs; but in a room where there is not too much wear and tear they are most suitable. No special outfit is required for the work, and it can be carried about in a bag as easily as a bit of embroidery. It is astonishing how quickly such a rug will grow if the buttons are made at odd minutes. Owned by Mrs. Harry W. Priest BUTTON RUG PATCHWORK AND BUTTON RUGS 141 First, let's talk about materials. Velvet and silk can be used, but are not the best, by any means. Flannels are suitable; most satisfactory of all are pieces of broadcloth and light felt. Almost any firm piece of cloth will do for the foundation. There are two methods of making the buttons, but these are alike in one thing: three circles of cloth are needed, varying in diameter, one inch for the top circle, one and one half inches for the next circle, and two inches for the undermost circle. By the first method of making the buttons, the edges of all the circles are buttonhole-stitched in colored floss and they are fastened together, one upon the other, by means of French knots through the centre. I prefer the second method, because the rugs are more com- pact and do not catch the dust so easily: One circle is placed upon the other — the smallest on top, of course — and the edges of each circle are buttonhole- stitched to the one beneath it. This is the way that the buttons are arranged on the foundation: A button is sewed exactly upon the centre of the background. If the first method of making buttons is used, French knots hold it in place; if the second method is used, the outer circle is buttonhole-stitched to the foundation. A row of buttons is arranged around the centre; then another row; and so on until the rug is finished. You can use various methods in the arrangement of colors, but an effective rug is made by having diagonal 142 HANDMADE RUGS stripes of the same color run to the corners. One very lovely rug has the top circles of all the buttons made of black cloth. Another rug is oblong in shape; it has a green denim foundation; the buttons are of shades of brown and tan, with all the top circles made of orange felt. This rug was made in a manner slightly different from the rest — the buttons stood side by side in rows, and the first row was started at one end instead of in the centre. You should allow enough cloth on the foundation to hem back for a finish. If you wish an especially durable rug, line with unbleached muslin. A woman in Laconia, New Hampshire, has shown me a "fish-scale" rug which she brought from Nova Scotia. It is a variation of the button idea, being made upon a foundation and constructed from waste bits of cloth. Half -ovals of woolen cloth are button- hole-stitched about the edges with varicolored threads. Three of these half-ovals, varying in size, are used to form one scale. In this rug all of the lower half-ovals were black. The pieces of cloth forming a scale are sewed together on the straight edges, leaving the curving portions free. A row of scales is then arranged along the short side of the rectangular foundation. Then comes another row, overlapping the first row about an inch. This method of arrange- ment is continued until the foundation is covered. XI CROSS-STITCH RUGS The cross-stitch rug is an outgrowth of a form of needlework which was popular as far back in history as the Middle Ages. In 1640 was published the twelfth edition of The Praise of the Needle, a poem by John Taylor. In these quaint stanzas are references to various stitches used in needlework by the women of the time : — Fine Ferne-stitch, Finny-stitch, New Stitch, and Chain-stitch, Brave Bred-stitch, Fisher-stitch, Irish-stitch, and Queen stitch, The Spanish-stitch, Rosemary-stitch, and Mouse-stitch, The smarting Whip-stitch, Back-stitch, and the Crosse-stitch, All these are good, and these we must allow, And these are everywhere in practice now. So you see, crosse-stitch, as Taylor called it, was worked upon coarse-meshed fabrics in 1640. Later, after the sampler had developed from the crude records of needlework stitches used by the ladies of the court of Catherine of Aragon to pictures of houses, public buildings, Biblical scenes, and mourn- ing tokens, embellished with borders of leaves, flow- ers, alphabets, and numerals, and bearing the names of the workers, cross-stitch became a common and popular form of needlecraft. It was used to decorate pillow tops, stool covers, and chair cushions. It con- tinued to develop in popularity through the Vic- torian period, and there are evidences that certain 144 HANDMADE RUGS types of cross-stitch rugs were made in those times. To-day it is used upon household linens, wearing ap- parel, and bags, and for all kinds of decoration in homes, including artistic rugs. Even the sampler has come again into favor, and modern craftswomen are designing samplers with as much enthusiasm as did their ancestors of the Revolutionary period. Many articles decorated with cross-stitch are made upon canvas or other coarse, even-meshed fabrics, so the background of the cross-stitch rug must be similar in texture. Well-made burlap, similar to that used in hooked rugs, is good for the foundation ma- terial, or a very large-meshed canvas may be used. It should be cut to the desired size, and in all cases should be cut upon a thread. You should have a set of frames to hold the canvas or burlap, for, though you do not need so elaborate a set as for making a hooked rug, yet it must be true and firm in construc- tion. You can make the frames yourself from four straight strips of wood, fastened firmly at the cor- ners. The foundation material should be turned back an inch on all edges, and it should be fastened to the frames by means of thumb tacks. Do not commence your work near the edges of the frames, but leave at least an inch and one half of unworked canvas about the entire rug. These rugs may be made in all shapes — rectangular, oval, round, hex- agonal, or octagonal. Whatever shape you decide to make, follow the directions given under hooked rugs. CROSS-STITCH RUGS 145 For filling materials you will need very heavy knitting worsted or the jute described in the chapter on crocheted rugs. You can use up odds and ends of worsteds by pulling from three to four strands of it through the eyes of the needle. The needle should have a large eye and a blunt point, that it may not catch in the meshes of the canvas. Tapestry needles are excellent for this work. Nearly every needleworker knows how to do cross- stitch, but for the benefit of anyone to whom it is a new art, I will give a brief description. I have spoken before of A Hand-Book of Needlework, written eighty-odd years ago by Miss Lambert. It is inter- esting alike to the collector of old books and to the needleworker. The book-collector will find great interest in the preface, in which the author quaintly says: "I am indebted to my husband for his assistance in some of the historical notices, and again for his permission in allowing my maiden name to appear on the title- page, as being that by which I am more generally recognized in my avocation." The needleworker will discover that Miss Lambert's descriptions of old stitches are as good as the day they w T ere written. Let me quote her description of doing cross-stitch : — "Cross-stitch is worked over two threads in a diagonal direction each way. It is a double stitch, and made, first by bringing the needle up on the left and putting it down on the right, which forms half 140 HANDMADE RUGS a stitch; it is then crossed by bringing the needle up again on the right and passing it down on the left. We would advise each stitch to be finished before another is commenced, as the work will be more even than if it were half stitched before crossing — a Courtesy of "The Country Gentleman" THIS PICTURE SHOWS THE METHOD OF WORKING THE CROSS-STITCH RUG method not infrequently practised. Grounding in cross-stitch should be done in alternate rows back- wards and forwards." Points for you to remember, when making a cross- stitch rug, are to cross your stitches all the same CROSS-STITCH RUGS 147 way and, if you have used canvas instead of burlap, to take up from two to four small squares instead of one. Now comes the selection of the design. Look over your cross-stitch patterns and select one with clear- cut, bold outlines, remembering, as you do so, that the design will be greatly enlarged when it is com- pleted. If you wish to make your own designs, buy the checked paper used by artists and designers, and draw your patterns by the aid of the small blocks upon the paper. Conventional and geometrical patterns are easy to do, and simple block patterns will use up the odds and ends of yarn which collect in every household. Squares, rectangles, and diamonds may be easily worked out with varicolored wools, divided off with black wools. Picture rugs, similar to those made upon hooked rugs, can be made, if the picture selected is not too intricate. Samplers will furnish ideas for them. Figures of children are especially pretty upon rugs for children's rooms and nurseries. Animal designs may be made in cross-stitch. Children are always fond of any kind of rug bearing pictures of lambs, kittens, dogs, ducks, and chickens. If you choose a floral pattern, keep it simple. Large single roses, fleur-de-lis — in fact, any broad- petaled flowers may be used either in a border or for a central motif. In all cases follow your pattern 148 HANDMADE RUGS very closely, or you will lose the shape of the design. A border of leaves is effective. The question of color is as important in these as in any other kind of handmade rugs. Neutral or subdued colors — tans, grays, dull blues, soft browns, black, and ivory — make excellent backgrounds, and in rugs where the design is simple, vivid coloring may be introduced with good effect. The work on a cross-stitch rug goes very quickly, and almost before you know it your rug is com- pleted. To finish it, take it from the frames, fold back the canvas at the outermost line of the cross- stitching, and press it on the back with a hot iron. It adds to the beauty of the work if the entire rug is pressed before lining. Then line it with felting, flannel, denim, or heavy cotton cloth. In the case of rugs other than those of rectangular or square shapes, follow the directions given for finishing hooked rugs. Some of the older cross-stitch rugs introduced raised flowers in certain sections of the design. Loops of wool were pulled through the canvas in a manner similar to that of hooking in. After the design was all pulled in with shaded wools, the pattern was clipped w r ith sharp scissors until the form of the de- sired design appeared upon the surface, above the rest of the rug. The result was similar to the em- bossed surfaces of hooked rugs where the designs were raised above the backgrounds. Miss Lambert in her old book on needlework tells Courtesy of " The Country Gentleman'''' CROSS-STITCH RUG IN RED AND BLACK CROSS-STITCH RUGS 151 of this method of raised cut-embroidery in wool. As I told you, the book was first published in Eng- land. In a certain part she refers briefly to a rug which I feel sure was similar to the American hooked rug. While describing the raised embroidery, she refers to a so-called "mesh" for pulling the wool through the cloth. The description and the drawing of the implement suggest to me the rug hook. Later she says: "This description of work is best adapted to succeed on cloth; if properly done, it should be extremely firm and solid, so that, if trodden upon, it will be but little injured." Then she continues farther on: "The method we have described will be found the best, where perfection of raised work is sought for; but a more simple mode of working is over a common wooden mesh, and cutting with the scissors, in a similar manner to the raised edges of urn rugs." Just what urn rugs were, I do not know, but I think there is no doubt but they were related to the rug made of a combination of cross-stitch and raised cut-embroidery in wool, and to the hooked rug. The author of the quaint book tells us that "raised work of this kind has been brought to great perfec- tion, particularly in France, both for flowers, birds, and animals." Shall we look then to the French crafts workers of the past for the models of certain types of our New England rugs? XII ODDS AND ENDS My grandmother's kitchen was a cheerful place. It was the centre of the household — the factory where the many industries necessary to home life on a large farm were carried on. The old fireplace was closed, but on Thanksgiving Grandmother carried out the old customs and once more built a fire in the huge brick oven. Then the coals were raked back, and dozens of pies were baked. The mince and apple pies, by the way, were carried out into the cold "but- tery" and frozen for winter consumption. The homestead had belonged to the family for a number of generations, and the mellow charm of used things hung about it. I remember sitting in my little straight-backed rocking-chair, clutching to me Whitenose, the big black-and-white family cat, and watching Grandmother as she bustled about the kitchen. Then, after the dinner dishes were done and she had arrayed herself in a snowy, crackling, starched apron, she would tell Minnie, the 'hired girl," to bring a basket of corn husks from the corn chamber. Grandmother had saved the soft inner husks from husking time, and she used them to make rugs. Yes, rugs! Corn-husk rugs were made by the early colonists, an old parchment-bound account book tells us. In it we read that some woman of the past ODDS AND ENDS 153 paid for "1 Gaus handkerchief with ,:< 1 bushel of nuts and a corn-husk rug." Those Grandmother made were used before the outside kitchen door, in the entry and on the porch, to keep the tracks of muddy shoes off the white-scrubbed kitchen floor. You will find them excellent for porch use. The method of making the braids followed that of plait- ing braided rugs, although there were some varia- tions in the work. Grandmother tied six of the white husks together and fastened them with a bit of twine halfway down their length. She divided these into three parts, each part containing two husks. Then she began to braid, but as she brought the " three" strand into place she added two new husks. The secret of the process lay in wrapping the short ends of a strand in the new husks. When Grandmother had a braid of sufficient length to make a round rug, she fastened the end firmly with twine. Dry corn husks are too brittle to sew together, so she placed the braid in water and let it stand overnight. The next morning she drained off the water. By after- noon the braid was in exactly the right condition for working, and the rug was sewn together by the same method as that described for making round braided rugs. But I was not always an onlooker at these tasks. In good old New Hampshire style, Grandmother believed that Satan finds mischief for idle hands to do! So she taught me to make a simple rug by 154 HANDMADE RUGS stringing small bits of woolen cloth on a piece of twine, by means of a darning needle. These pieces of cloth were about two inches long and an inch wide and were of all colors of the rainbow. Each cloth necklace was about a yard long, and Grandmother sewed them later on a background of heavy print, three quarters of a yard wide and a yard long. The rugs were soft and warm, though unfortunately they caught every bit of dust. Nevertheless, they served their purpose in providing occupation for small hands. Once I was visiting another child whose mother, no doubt, found us too active for her comfort, so she set us to making rugs, from an idea that she had learned in Canada in her own childhood. Upon un- bleached muslin she drew a swan, supposed to be swimming on an azure lake. Our work was to ruffle narrow lengths of thin cloth and to sew them on the design, taking our stitches through the ruffling stitches. I shall never forget it! The swan developed without much effort on our part, but the work of "ruffling" sky and water seemed endless, and when we reached the black border we had to be coaxed and threatened into finishing our rug. The only rug that — for want of a better name — I must call a star rug, I saw many years ago in the little village of Gilmanton Iron Works, New Hamp- shire. Cousin Charles was the village * postmaster, and he and Cousin Abbie lived to be very old, but their house, filled with things that would have made ODDS AND ENDS 155 an antique-collector's mouth water, was burned in a fire that swept through the unprotected village. I remember the rug, because Abbie May's wax doll, in a blue "polonaise," sat solemnly in her chair which was placed upon it. I have only recently worked out from an old-fashioned cushion cover the idea of the manufacture of that rug, but I feel cer- tain that any modern crafts woman can make one. Velvet squares formed the background of Cousin Abbie's rug, but squares of broadcloth would serve the purpose just as well. In working out my pattern from the pillow cover, I decided that nine-inch squares would be the best size to use. Now let me tell you exactly how to make the stars. A five-pointed star of cardboard, tin, or zinc is fas- tened to the centre of a square and a darning needle is threaded with doubled four-ply Germantown. Commencing with the tip of one point, the yarn is pulled through the fabric, over and over the card- board foundation, until all five points are covered. The sewing must be done as closely and thickly as possible, to ensure a velvety appearance when the star is done. In covering the pattern, the centre is left open. Starting from this centre and using a pair of sharp scissors, cut each point straight through to the tip. Carefully remove the stiff pattern through the opening in the worsted, and a fluffy star made of Germantown will remain. You can make the stars all of one color, using varied colors in the points, or 156 HANDMADE RUGS obtain a mottled effect by introducing odds and ends of worsteds into the star. Featherstitch the squares together, and complete with a border of silken braids. (Here's a suggestion for using old silk stockings.) Line the rug with any kind of firm cloth. I am sure that you have seen rugs made from pieces of "boughten" carpets and finished with braided strips. From a collector's standpoint they are worth- less, but they are extremely useful in summer cot- tages. The prettiest one that I have seen was made from a small triangle of blue carpeting, bordered by grav-and-blue braids. It was used in a blue-and- white bedroom that overlooked the sea. Another rug — which reminds me forcibly of the Pueblo Indian sleeping mat, not in materials used but in the construction — is made of strips of felt, each about one half inch wide. A simple frame of the desired size is constructed of slats of wood, and the rug is woven in the same manner as the paper mats made by kindergarten children. One color is used for the strips of the warp and a contrasting and harmonizing shade is used for the woof. The places where the warp and woof intermingle, at the sides and the ends of the rug, are fastened with heavy threads, and the ends of the pieces of felt are left loose for a finish. There are certain by-products of rug-making wdiich furnish ideas for craftswomen interested in constructing simple articles of beauty and utility. ODDS AND ENDS 157 The first stools with hooked tops that I saw were in the White Cupboard Inn at Woodstock, Ver- mont. They were designed by Mrs. Elizabeth Royce, and were quaint and artistic. There are different ways of obtaining the wooden stools. You may have them built at your cabinet- maker's, or you may find just the one for which you are looking in a secondhand furniture store or an antique shop. The owner of an old homestead on the Oxbow in Newbury, Vermont, discovered two stools tucked away under the eaves in her attic. Either three- or four-legged stools are used. I think that you will find it necessary to paint such a stool, and you can use either black, gray, or ivory enamel to match the room in which you are to use it. For the hooked top use as a foundation a piece of fine-meshed burlap. The shape may be circular, oval, square, or rectangular, depending upon the top of the stool. Allow at least two extra inches for finishing. Make a frame of four slats of light wood and sew the stool top into it. Mark a simple pattern of a wreath of old-fashioned posies, a basket of flow- ers, or any simple spray of flowers. Landscape de- signs may be used, if they are kept very simple indeed. Cross-stitch patterns can be readily adapted to these hooked tops, and a careful study of them will repay the designer. Knitting worsteds are the best materials for hooking in, but scraps of silk and satins may be used. The method of working is ex- actly the same as that of making hooked rugs. 158 HANDMADE RUGS After the hooking is completed, remove the stool top from the frames, leaving the border for turning in. Pad the top of the stool with layers of outing flannel or half-worn blankets. Arrange the hooked top over the padding, and fasten in place with up- holstery tacks. Complete the edge by carefully tack- ing on a fringe made of knitting worsteds in black or neutral colors. Some of the arts-and-crafts shops are displa3^ng hooked collar-and-cuff sets. They are especially effec- tive when used on flannel or jersey-cloth dresses. Curtain scrim is used for the foundation material and is held in place in ordinary embroidery frames. Knitting worsteds are used for filling in, and the hook- ing is done with a medium-sized steel crochet hook. Very simple patterns are used, and frequently the collar and cuffs have borders matching the gown in color. Scrim is also used for the foundation of hooked bags. The cloth is cut in a rectangle large enough to fold to make a bag of the required size. It is held in place in embroidery hoops. Worsteds or strips of fine silk are used for the work. As in the case of the stool tops and the collar-and-cuff sets, simple patterns are best. The art of hooking in is now being applied to the decoration of gowns. Jersey cloth is the best material, and simple patterns and borders of plain stripes of color make the decoration. One dress was made of tan jersey, and had about the bottom a three-inch Courtesy of Mrs. E. E. Morse and " The House Beautiful" THESE STOOLS WITH HOOKED TOPS WILL FURNISH IDEAS FOR CRAFTS- WOMEN INTERESTED IN CONSTRUCTING SIMPLE ARTICLES OF BEAUTY AND UTILITY ODDS AND ENDS 161 brown and orange band, pulled in with doubled strands of Iceland wool. Dark blue jersey cloth with a border of gray and royal blue is another suggestion. In a novelty shop, not long ago, I saw some porch and lawn seats, designed, the shopkeeper told me, by a farm woman. They were made of fine rag braids in the same way that round braided rugs are made, and were just the size of grass lawn-mats. Handles for carrying them were formed of loops of the braids sewed into shape. These seats were gay indeed — red, yellow, orange, and bright blue pre- dominating in them. They were very salable and the designer was frequently asked to refill orders. I have also seen bags made of braided silk pieces. Two round mats of the desired sizes are constructed. They are sewed together with an opening left at the top, and a braided handle is made and attached to the top of the bag. Patchwork pictures are interesting to design and are lovely for decorations. Coarse-woven linens and unbleached muslin make excellent backgrounds, and bright bits of cloth from the piece bag will furnish the patches. If you have any imagination at all, you will enjoy creating landscapes, seascapes, garden scenes, and quaint big-hooped maidens, hidden coyly under poke bonnets. The applique work is done with small stitches in colored threads to match the materials, and sometimes it will be necessary to add a bit of embroidery to get just the desired effect. XIII THE WOVEN RUG It is not because I think the art of making the woven rug less important than the construction of other kinds that I have left its discussion until this chapter. It is rather because the subject is so extensive that it would be impossible to write fully upon it in a book on general rug-making. We might almost say it needs a book by itself, but, on the other hand, one could not write of handmade New England rugs without speaking of this form of old-time handicraft. Weaving and spinning are as old as written his- tory, and as universal as mankind. All primitive tribes have had their crude forms of these crafts. The Book of Proverbs tells of that woman whose price w T as far above rubies: "She seeketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands. . . . She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff." Roman matrons, even ladies of royal status, prided themselves upon their knowledge of the loom, and supervising the weaving in large households was part of their daily duty. Early New England women brought the knowl- edge with them to the forest-covered lands of their new home. As time went on and farms were cleared, the daughters on all the isolated farms learned to weave, that they might assist in replenishing the THE WOVEN RUG 163 stock of household linens and add, bit by bit, to the necessary articles for their own setting-out. Some- times they were aided by the professional weaver, who traveled about to help them prepare the warps and assist them in threading looms. There are women still living who can remember when weaving and spinning were New England home industries. The flax field, with its crown of fragile blue flowers, was a necessary part of every farm, and the failure of the crop was thought a great misfor- tune. Every farmer owned a flock of sheep. Can't you picture the women of the family, seated out of doors on summer afternoons, drawing from their little flax wheels the threads to be woven on the big loom? And there was constantly the whir of the big spinning wheels, for we are told that it re- quired the work of four spinners to supply one loom. In her book, New England Bygones, Mrs. Rollins gives us a charming picture of weaving as she recalled it: "My grandmother used to sit, hour after hour, at her loom, plying the shuttle with no less persist- ence than in spinning she drew out her threads. Across the huge beams (of the loom), under and over each other crossed and recrossed these threads, like a spider's web. The work was slow, but it never flagged. Threads were broken and carefully taken up; quills gave out, and were patiently renewed; the web grew, thread by thread, inch by inch; the in- tricate pattern came out upon the surface and pleased 164 HANDMADE RUGS the weaver's eye. ... At the end of a long sum- mer's afternoon the end of the warp was reached; the treadles slipped; the web was done." It is not strange that our grandmothers early called upon an art which I hey knew so well to fur- nish them with coverings for their floors. Hand- woven rag carpets were used in many New Eng- land farmhouses and village homes. A friend of mine inherited a small house in a little New Hampshire village. When she came to examine her inheritance she found that every floor in the house, except those of the kitchen and the buttery, was covered with hand-woven rag carpeting! It was the work of an elderly woman who had inherited a cumbersome old- time loom from her mother. As a child, she had helped her mother weave carpets for the village housewives and, to use her own phraseology, had woven carpeting enpugh in her life ''to nearly go round the world." It is perhaps worthy of note that this weaver, now nearly eighty years old, is still earning her living by making rugs on the ancient loom. Modern craftswomen who have revived the arts of their grandmothers are weaving rugs for their own use and for commercial purposes. No one can weave well without a good loom adapted for the kind of weaving preferred by the worker. Ancient Colonial looms can sometimes be put in good working order, but even the largest modern looms are less cumber- Courtesy of Mary Meigs Atwater MODERN CRAFTSWOMEN WHO HAVE REVIVED THE ART OF THEIR GRAND- MOTHERS ARE WEAVING RUGS FOR THEIR OWN USE AND FOR COMMERCIAL PURPOSES THE WOVEN RUG 167 some and take up less space than the old type. Reduced to its simplest terms, a loom is simply a framework for stretching the warp and for dividing the warp into parts for the insertion of the weft — sometimes called woof or rilling. There are various kinds, from the simple wooden frames which are hardly more than toys to the clumsy machines of the past. In Colonial days looms set up with harness of two heddle frames were used for the weaving of plain linen sheets, linsey-woolsey, or plain rag carpeting. The process of stringing up the loom was as fol- lows: Usually two women worked together, one holding the warp threads while the other turned the crank for winding the warp on the warp beam at the back of the loom. The harness of two heddle frames hung from the overstructure. The threading was carried through the heddle eyes alternately, first in the front frame, then in the back frame. Then the batten was threaded, and the warp was passed over the breastbeam and secured to the cloth beam. When the foot of the worker was pressed on the treadle tied to the first heddle frame, that frame was depressed and the second was raised. This made what was called a "shed." Through this shed, be- tween the warp threads, the worker passed the shut- tle, filled with the weft thread. Then she pushed the weft into place by means of the batten. Using 168 HANDMADE RUGS the other treadle, and the over and under interlac- ing of threads, she repeated the process. Two-harness looms are in use to-day, but they cannot serve for pattern weaving. The best appara- tus to select is a large treadle loom equipped with four harnesses and weaving forty-four inches wide. It can be used for both plain and pattern weaving. Mary Meigs Atwater, an authority on weaving, does not find the plain rag rugs of the hit-or-miss variety interesting. She suggests copying the pat- terns of the old-fashioned coverlets, and construct- ing a rug design of character. A study of these old coverlets will more than repay the craftswoman who takes pleasure in creative work. The warp thread used in weaving rugs is strong and durable; it comes in black, natural, or gray, and is now made in other colors. It can be purchased from various department stores, from some arts-and- crafts shops, from professional weavers, and from the large mail-order houses. Almost any kind of cloth can be used for the weft of the old-style rag rugs. Old clothing and household linens are excellent, and either cotton or woolen cloth may be woven. It is best, however, to keep cotton goods for one rug and woolen for another. One thrifty woman who makes many rugs for her- self and her friends tears her worn-out garments, old sheets, and other household linens into strips of the required size and puts them away in paper THE WOVEN RUG 169 bags. Then, when she has enough for a rug, she brings them out and dyes them. For pattern weaving, cotton "roving," jute rug-filling, woolen rug-yarn, and cotton chenille are excellent materials. There is a certain knack in sewing carpet rags. The cloth should be cut or torn into strips varying in size with the thickness of the material. Three quar- ters of an inch is a desirable width for goods of the quality of gingham. The method of sewing is as follows: Place the end of one rag by the end of the other and fold the strips lengthwise for about two inches. Then make two firm stitches through the center of the sides of the fold. This is done that there may be no bunches in the woven rug. Then break the thread. After some practice you will be able to sew quickly. Wind your rags in balls — one color to a ball, unless you are making hit-or-miss carpeting. Some rug-weavers claim that one pound of carpet rags makes a yard of carpeting, so if you wish to plan your material, you might weigh the rags and wind into balls containing one half pound each. The color question is important in weaving rugs. The study of the shades in antique coverlets will give inspiration, and there are more modern combinations which are exquisite. A very pretty hit-or-miss rug, used in a dining-room, was woven from woolen scraps in shades of gray, blue, dull green, and orange, with black scraps scattered frequently among them. It was made upon gray warp, and a border of blue- 170 HANDMADE RUGS and-black was added a I each end. Three strips of carpeting were sewn together to make the rug. It would be difficult to give in this short chapter explicit directions Tor weaving a rug upon the large four-harness loom, and it would be misleading to give directions for weaving one upon a table loom, as that type is too small for rug-weaving. Beginners, however, find it much easier to learn to weave on a small loom before progressing to the larger size. Merely to offer a suggestion, and to give the crafts- woman an idea of the simple process of weaving, that she may receive an incentive to become inter- ested in a worth-while creative handicraft, the proc- ess of weaving a table runner of silk pieces will be described. First, let me attempt to give some general direc- tions for weaving. The first thing is to thread the loom. Decide upon the length of your runner, then add eighteen inches extra to the length of each warp thread. Now determine how many warp threads cover one inch, and multiply that by the width of the runner, allowing one half inch extra for the sel- vage. If you look at the cross frame, you will see that it contains a series of small holes with regular spaces between them. Thread the warp threads al- ternately in the holes and across the spaces. Choose a thread for the right side of the runner, and pull it through a slot at the proper distance from the centre. Continue this process, alternately filling the holes Courtesy of Mary Meigs Atwater WOVEN RUG. "DOG-TRACKS" PATTERN THE WOVEN RUG 173 and spaces. Loop the ends in front of the frame to keep the threads from slipping for the time being. Now lock the back roller of the loom, and knot the ends of the warp thread into groups. Pull one of the two matched sticks which come with the table loom through the tab on the back roller ; then through half of the loops of the knotted threads ; then through the centre tab; then through the other half of the knotted warp threads; then through the remaining tabs. Hold the warp threads in the right hand as tightly as possible, and, having unlocked the back roller, turn it away from you, and roll the threads evenly upon it. When about a foot of the warp threads remains, lock the roller, and loop the ends of the warp threads until you are ready to slip the other matched stick through the tabs, and warp and wind it on the front roller. The runner that I am describing is made of sand- colored strips, and the border is old blue, rose, and dull green on a natural-colored warp. Wind the silk strips on the shuttle. Lift the cross frame and bring it forward until it is within a short distance of the back roller. Pass the shuttle through this opening. Drop the cross frame and bring it forward. You must use both hands, and press the weft of silk rags as far forward as it will go. Now push the cross frame back near the back roller, but do not lift it; instead, force it down. Pass the shuttle through this opening; bring the cross frame forward, and press 174 HANDMADE RUGS the new weft against the first filling of weft. Con- tinue this process, and you will find your web begin- ning to grow. After a number of inches have been woven, the web must be rolled upon the front roller and more of the unwoven warp then brought for- ward. First weave three inches of the sand-colored material, then six rows of old blue, two rows of rose, six rows of blue, five of rose, one of green, and four of blue. Then weave with the sand color until you have the desired length. Now add the other border, reversing it as you work. To remove the work from the loom, cut the warp threads in front of the cross frame, loosen the roller, and unwind the material. To finish the runner, stitch the ends upon the sewing- machine, and tie the warp to form fringe. After you have once mastered the simple rudi- ments of weaving, the process is not difficult, and the purchase of a large four-harness treadle-loom will enable you to weave rugs with patterns or plain rugs with intricate borders. It is an understood thing that this type of loom is threaded not for one rug, but to make a web of carpeting, or a number of rugs, with the same threading. Directions come with the different types of looms; but it would be wise for the beginner to get in touch with a professional weaver and take a few lessons in rug-weaving. XIV EMBROIDERED CARPETS Although embroidered carpets were produced by a few ambitious American craftswomen during the early years of the nineteenth century, the amount of work required for their execution made them the exception rather than the rule in the realm of needle- work. At a time when a woman had to superintend, at least, all the sewing of clothes for the members of her family and of the linens for her household, she could hardly undertake the task of embroidering a floor covering which would take all her spare time for two to nine years or so. She might attempt a chair back, a table cover, an ottoman, a fire screen, or, in the forties, a piece of the popular Berlin work which had superseded the sampler stampede of Revo- lutionary days, but the making of a carpet required hours of leisure that a woman of the early republic did not usually have. Women whose husbands were beginning to make money in the new era of commercial activity were buying French and Eng- lish factory-made carpets of floral design, which were being steadily distributed throughout the United States. Embroidered carpets may have been the out- growth of the desires of less affluent women, who were hungering for beauty in their homes, and who felt that they were taking one step in the right direc- tion when they made coverings for their parlor floors. 176 HANDMADE RUGS These handmade carpets were not of American origin, nor were they characteristic of the nineteenth century, for I hey had been made on the Continent and in provincial England for many generations. We hear of them in Germany as early as the fifteenth century — the forerunners, no doubt, of the unique needle-point rugs made by German women in Penn- sylvania. One Pennsylvania German embroidered carpet, owned by Mrs. J. Insley Blair, is worked in cross-stitch, carrying out a geometric design which is obviously a sampler pattern, and is further adorned by billing doves, which convey the impression that it was originally intended for the parlor of a bride. Embroidered carpets were commonly enough made in England to warrant reference to them in Miss Lambert's Hand- Book of Needlework, of which I have previously spoken. Writing of English lambs- wool, this crafts woman of the late eigh teen-thirties advocates its use combined with German wool, for the making of carpets. 'Worsted is a still harsher description of English wool, manufactured from the coarser parts of the fleece," she wrote; "but it is capable of taking a very fine dye, and may be advantageously used for work- ing carpets and rugs. It is much cheaper than either German or English lambswool, and is the best and only proper material for making the raised borders of urn rugs, and the various kinds of patterns and bor- ders in moss and rouleau, etc.; it being, from the EMBROIDERED CARPETS 177 length of its filaments, greatly improved by combing, assuming that downy appearance which distinguishes a well-finished rug border." Various stitches were used, it seems, in the making of English embroidered carpets, for one attributed to the eighteenth century and owned by the Victoria and Albert Museum is developed in a combination of cross-stitch and chain stitch on canvas. Because so very few embroidered carpets are left to us for the study of floor coverings in early Amer- ican homes, the examples which do remain are doubly important as textile evidence. One owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art is made of burlap strips, worked in cross-stitch and sewed together. The pattern appears to be based on a brocade design and the coloring is uninteresting. It is said to be of New York workmanship, and the surmised date is 1810. Much more unusual, both in design and workman- ship, is the Miner carpet, which gained its name from that of its creator, Mrs. E. G. Miner of Canton, St. Lawrence County, New York. The story is told that Mrs. Miner, after spending her leisure for seven or eight years in making the carpet, completed it in 1844 and sent it to the state fair for exhibition. But the piece of patiently made handicraft arrived too late for the intended purpose, so Mr. Homer Eaton Keyes, the editor of Antiques, tells us. "So much interest did it arouse," Mr. Keyes says, 178 HANDMADE RUGS 'that it was given a special display by itself. At the time il was described as showing a border consisting entirely of bouquets of flowers, and a central series picturing groups of cattle, sheep with their shepherds, hunters on the trail of buffalo and moose, game birds, and what not else." Now the carpet, which was sixteen feet square, has been broken up and the parts distributed among members of the family, precious remembrances of the ancestor who designed and embroidered the an- cient floor covering. The designs are naturalistic and were drawn with charcoal upon pieces of bagging, then embroidered, with stocking yarns and ravel- ings from knitted garments, in what seems to be chain stitch. All of the traditions of the early craftswomen of rural New England are wrapped up in an embroid- ered carpet made in the small northern Vermont town of Castleton sometime during the two years or more preceding 1835. 1 Spinning, weaving, home dye- ing, patient needlework, and original design contrib- ute to the interest and charm of this example of early nineteenth-century floor covering. The maker, Zeruah Higley Guernsey, came hon- estly enough by her knowledge of spinning, for she had grown up in a community where it was neces- sary for all girls to learn to spin, and, moreover, her illustrations of embroidered carpets, including several of the "Caswell Carpet" here reproduced by kind permission of the Editor, appeared in Antiques, Vol. IX, No. 6, frontispiece and pp. 396 ff. EMBROIDERED CARPETS 179 father was a maker of spinning wheels. Step by step, from its first stage as unkempt wool upon the sheeps' backs, to the day when the material came from the brass dye-pots ready to be worked upon the home- spun background, the carpet developed under the industrious fingers of its designer. Each square of the carpet — which is twelve feet wide by thirteen and one half feet long — bears a different design. If you look the pattern over ever so carefully, you can- not find two that resemble each other. It reminds the student of early handicrafts of the " Circuit Rid- er's Quilt," now the valued property of the Chicago Art Institute, which was made for the dauntless Reverend G. C. Warvel by the women of the United Brethren Church at Miami, Ohio. No two squares in the quilt are alike; but there is one great difference between it and the carpet. The quilt was planned by forty different women; the diversity of design in the carpet came from the imagination of but one woman. The coloring of the wools used in working the car- pet is as varied as the designs. Flowers, leaves, ferns, fruits, butterflies, puppies, cats, a rooster, and a man and woman appear in hues which are some- times true to nature and sometimes flights of fancy. Upon the black background the designs are clearly cut. I think that it was Bacon who said, "In needle- work and embroideries, it is more pleasing to have a lively work upon a sad and solemn ground than to 180 HANDMADE RUGS have a dark and melancholy work upon a lightsome ground." The rather startling blue-and-white cat, the gay flowers, and the bright costumes of the man and woman, etched upon the black background, are practical demonstrations of this theory. The overornateness of design which was beginning to be noticeable in furniture, in silver and Britannia ware, and in needlework, had evidently not yet per- meated to the remote town where Zeruah Iligley Guernsey planned the carpet for her father's prim parlor. Although there is a mere touch of massive- ness in some of the patterns, most of them follow the open designs and feeling for silhouette prevalent in the eighteenth century. "Zeruah Guernsey never once loses her feeling for sparkling pattern," says Mr. Keyes, describing this inimitable carpet, ''but she does occasionally yield to the dictates of naturalism — not so much in her depiction of the lover and his lass as in that of some tumbling puppies and kittens and of an extraordinary blue cat. In each of the latter three the background is no more than a symbol, devoid of perspective; but it is important, for it unmistakably represents a simple rag carpet. The normal carpeting of Zeruah 's house we may therefore safely infer to have been the woven rag strip." In the actual working out of the patterns the de- signer seems to have made use of chain stitch, which Miss Lambert defined as an imitation of tambour EMBROIDERED CARPETS 181 work. It is said that Zeruah claimed she did the work upon tambour frames, which were formed of two hoops covered with cloth, the material being stretched on the inner, and kept in its place by the outer hoop, tightened by means of a thumbscrew. In 1842, when the American edition of Miss Lambert's book was published, tambour work was evidently out of style, for she wrote, as a definition of the frames, "Tam- bour frames, whereon the material is stretched like the parchment of a drum — whence their name — are now seldom employed, although formerly much used when tambour work was the fashion." So we can picture Zeruah Guernsey, stretching her squares of black homespun like parchment of a drum upon her frames. There is an unusual and most interesting addition to this embroidered carpet developed by the de- signer's desire to conceal the ugliness of the unused parlor hearth in summer time. This hearth piece was detachable, and when it became necessary to build the roaring fires required by rigorous Northern win- ters in the parlor fireplace, the hearth piece could be removed. We cannot tell why Zeruah lavished her best designs upon this section of the carpet. Was it because she grew up in a period when the huge fireplace formed the centre of family life, or because it seemed to draw attention to a spot of bal- anced interest to save the best design for the hearth? Whatever the reason, the hearth covering bears a 182 HANDMADE RUGS striking pattern of flowers, fruit, and leaves, arranged in a basket, and supplemented on either side by sprays of flowers. On three sides of the unit is a bor- der of red triangles. In 1840 Zeruah Guernsey married a Caswell, but continued to live in Castleton for many years. As time went on, the famous pieee of handiwork which covered the floor of her parlor became known as the Caswell carpet. It is now the property of the editor of Antiques. If old furniture and household possessions could speak and tell us their secrets, what stories we might relate! The Caswell carpet could no doubt entertain us with tales of old New England. There are a few traditions that have come down through the years with it. One is that the blue tabby on the carpet ex- ercised an uncanny influence upon the family house cat when she strayed one day into the parlor. It is said that the insulted pussy arched her back and spit spitefully at the worsted feline. Three squares of the carpet have unusual interest as autographic data. One bears the initials of the creator, while two others are ornamented with the initials F B and L F M. It is known that F B stood for Francis Baron, and it is thought that LFM rep- resented his companion. These boys were Indians of the Potawatami tribe and were students at the Castleton Medical College. During their medical training these lads were given homes by the village Courtesy of "Antiques" A SECTION OF THE CASWELL CARPET, NOW OWNED BY MR. HOMER KEYES, SHOWING A VARIETY OF THE MOST INTERESTING DESIGNS, INCLUDING THE MAN AND WOMAN WEARING THE COSTUMES OF 1835, AND THE HEARTH PIECE EMBROIDERED CARPETS 185 people, different families taking their turns. They were guests in the Guernsey family during the period when the carpet was being made, and each contrib- uted a design to it. Courtesy of " Antiques " THERE IS A TRADITION THAT THE BLUE TABBY ON THE CASWELL CARPET EXERCISED AN UNCANNY INFLUENCE UPON THE FAMILY HOUSE CAT The man and woman embroidered on the Caswell carpet have had an interesting but rather tedious existence. After the carpet was completed Zeruah covered the unhappy pair with another design tightly sewed over them. They have been freed, however, 186 HANDMADE RUGS from their bondage, and now add distinction and historical interest to the work by their clothes, which are costumes of lcS,'>,> and verify the date that the Vermont girl embroidered on the edge of the carpet Courtesy of "Antiques" SQUARES FROM THE CASWELL CARPET, SHOWING INITIALS AND DATE, WITH THE OPEN DESIGNS AND FEELING FOR SILHOUETTE PREVALENT IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY which was to bring her name before collectors of early Americana. Embroidered carpets add an interesting item to the subject of early American floor coverings. The editor of Antiques merely suggests that perhaps the EMBROIDERED CARPETS 187 embroidered carpet serves as a kind of forerunner of the hooked rug. 'This, rather inevitably, brings us back to the perennial and as yet unanswered question as to the date when hooked rugs first came into use, and as to the nature of the floor coverings which they super- seded," he says. " As to the first question, it is prov- able beyond peradventure that the technique of hooking, almost precisely as it was and is applied in the production of hooked rugs, was known in the eighteenth century; but it was applied to the making of bedcovers, not of carpets. Such bedcovers, wrought in wool yarns on a homespun wool founda- tion, constitute a chapter yet to be written." XV COMMERCIAL OPPORTUNITIES OF RUG-MAKING To the woman with creative instinct, artistic sense, and nimble fingers, the rug industry offers an oppor- tunity for supplementing her supply of pin money, or even furnishing means for a livelihood. From a commercial standpoint, hooked, braided, and woven rugs are the most popular, although well-made ap- plique rugs of felt, crocheted rugs in artistic colors, knitted rugs, — especially the "washboard" variety, — and button rugs are salable. There are three ways by which the woman work- ing at home may readily dispose of her wares: she may w r ork and sell her rugs in her own house; she may sell through gift shops and department stores; she may promote a community industry, with her- self as the business manager. The rugs, however, be they hooked, braided, ap- pliqued, knitted, crocheted, or woven, must be the best products that the w r orker can make. The de- signs, while varied, must all be pleasing, the work- manship of the finest type, and the color schemes harmonious. The price must not be too exorbitant. The worker should receive a good price for her work, but she should remember also to be fair to the cus- tomer. One dealer — he does not make the rugs, by the way — told me that he preferred to ask less COMMERCIAL OPPORTUNITIES 189 for his wares, in the vernacular "to turn them over more quickly," rather than to keep his money tied up too long. The home worker does not have this question to meet. The one that confronts her is how quickly she wishes to turn her piece of handi- craft into ready money. So, first, make a thorough study of your market, carefully estimating each step of your output. Do not expect, at once, to make as large wages as you would if working on a salary out- side of your home. The home worker must always remember that she has not the overhead expenses of the outside worker. She is really managing two busi- nesses, those of her home and of her handicraft. Later, as the quality of her wares is perfected and as her reputation grows, she can establish larger prices. Now, suppose that you are a woman working in your own home; how are you to reach your cus- tomers? You can write notes to prospective cus- tomers, saying that you have rugs for sale, or you can insert an advertisement in a paper circulating among the people whom you wish to interest in your wares. You can also hang an artistic sign, featuring the rugs, in front of your house; or, if you live in a resort town, you can obtain permission to hang a small poster in hotel offices. Then, as customers come, you can display the rugs which you have at hand and take orders for others. I think that it is advisable to ask more money for a rug made to match 190 HANDMADE RUGS certain color schemes, or for one that involves extra work in designing. If yon are a countrywoman, an exhibit at state and county fairs may help you. A simple way of disposing of homemade rugs is to interest the owner of a gift shop, the head of the rug and drapery department of a large store, or an inte- rior decorator. Here you will pay a commission for all rugs sold or for all work ordered. Perhaps you are one of those persons who has a vision of handicraft work done by a community. One of the best-known instances of such a project is the Society of Deerfield Industries at Deerfield, Massa- chusetts, where weaving, rug-making, basket-mak- ing, ironworking, netting, tufted work, and dyeing, as w^ell as photography, are done by individuals who have banded themselves together for mutual benefit. The Deerfield project is ambitious and successful, so you see there a proof that cooperation and business methods can accomplish great things. A community rug business can be developed in any village or small town if the spirit of the Deerfield industries is carried out. Two persons are most important in developing this kind of w T ork. One is a business manager, and the other is a designer who must thoroughly under- stand design and colors, and who must be trained in handicrafts. The business manager attends to all the financial part of the project and places the wares before the public. The designer must plan the rugs — COMMERCIAL OPPORTUNITIES 191 shapes, patterns, and colors; she must understand the making of them, and be familiar with the prob- lems of dyeing. The workers must cooperate in every way with both the business manager and the designer. One industry which seemed to point to success has failed because the rug-makers would not cooperate with the director; but in various localities, both in the North and in the South, rug-making has been successfully carried on by groups of workers. The project in hooked-rug making which is being perfected at the South End House in Boston is a practical application of sane methods to develop an active craft. It demonstrates the theory of cooper- ation between a board of directors and crafts workers, and teaches what can be actually accomplished in an organized hand-industry, when there is a clear and definite object in view. The South End House Industry is so much in keeping with New England in its spirit that I think a brief description of the work deserves a place in a book upon New England handmade rugs. The South End House is located in a lodging-house district in a part of Boston, to which have come men and women from Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and the Provinces. Here one naturally finds workers who in their youth learned from mothers and grandmothers the art of pulling in — women who are eager to find some outlet for their knowledge and their activity. One of the directors had watched the growth of the 192 HANDMADE RUGS Cranberry Island hooked-rug industry. When that was given up, she saw the possibility of carrying on a similar project at the South End House. It was the fulfillment of a dream of many years when, in the fall of 1923, the South End House Industry was actually started, to give employment to women in that district. The workrooms at the South End House were warm and sunny. One woman told another of the industry. One by one they came to revive their knowledge of the handicraft; to carry on friendly in- tercourse with others — a thing which transplanted women in large cities often find so strangely lacking; to give expression to that craving for artistic expres- sion which is the natural inheritance of all normal women; and to earn money which was to make life more comfortable for them. After a while there were about ten women, sometimes more, working at rug- making all the time. In order to make any hand industry a success there are a number of details that must be perfected. First, there is the business side of the venture. You have your products; they should be disposed of to the best advantage of all concerned. The South End House Industry is not a money-making proposition for the directors. Its object is far supe- rior to that. Nevertheless, the venture is naturally expected to pay its own way, so to speak, to furnish income for the crafts workers, to pay for COMMERCIAL OPPORTUNITIES 193 the materials used, to take care of certain incidental and overhead expenses, and to meet the cost of plac- ing the products before the public. The rug-makers are paid a certain price per square foot, — a sum which is fair to the women and makes the day's work satisfactory to them, — and the rugs are handled through certain arts-and-crafts shops in various large cities and resorts, as well as at the House itself. The designer who has charge of the hooked-rug making at this South End House is a craftswoman trained in design and color, and anxious to make the rugs as nearly perfect in workmanship as is possible. All the rugs are made under her supervision, and the process is directed in detail by one of the workers who has the necessary knowledge to act as fore- woman. The stencils used for the rugs are carefully chosen and developed to make a type which the designer hopes will be so characteristic that a rug made at the South End House may be recognized at once. Only oblong rugs are made, but they are carried out in various sizes to meet the requests of purchasers. Some of the patterns are modern in conception, such as the " mille-fleurs " with its gay little clusters of varicolored flowers upon a tan background, the quaint "gull" design, proclaiming its desirability for use in the nursery or in the bathroom, and the attractive Spanish pattern which the designer has worked out to be used in houses of the South or 194 HANDMADE RUGS Southwest, where a hooked rug of typical New Eng- land style would he entirely out of place. Other pat- terns were evolved from antique rugs, keeping their hest qualities and eliminating undesirable features. The "rope" pattern has the veritable atmosphere of rugs made in an ancient farmhouse kitchen. The "all-flower" is an adaptation of the floral design at its best, without the overelaboration of the hooked- rug patterns of the Civil War period. Neither is the popular "scroll" forgotten; it appears in some of the designs. All materials used in the rugs are new. Even- meshed burlap makes the foundations. New cotton goods are used for the filling of the cotton rugs; new flannel is cut up for the woolen type. Cotton and wool are never mixed, you will notice. The filling material is ail hand-dyed. The basement of the South End House has been turned into a laboratory, and there a young woman, who has studied the craft and who thoroughly understands the technique of dyes, experiments and gives the makers of the rugs exactly the right shades to make their products really beautiful. Big kettles of dyestuffs boil and bubble; in go pieces of undyed flannel, to come out later as glowing fabrics of rich hues. Rugs are not the only products of the frames and hooks which the workers at the South End House use so successfully. They pull in patterns for stool tops, make trimming bands for wool dresses, COMMERCIAL OPPORTUNITIES 197 and work hooked collar-and-cuff sets with fine wools and viyella flannels. An artist interested in this industry brought back the news from Paris that the centres of fashion are interested in pulled-in accesso- ries for women's clothes, and introduced to the de- signer the idea of making collars for evening capes. They are very simply made, only white wool pulled through without any pattern at all, but one can pic- ture the beauty of a white cape softened with one of these hooked collars. So it must not be overlooked that the hooked-rug work at the South End House teaches a lesson. It proves that there is an opportunity for the develop- ment of the handicrafts of early America, a chance to do what has been accomplished by reviving dis- tinctive handwork among the cottagers of England and of Ireland and among certain of the European peasants. Our American localities developed their own arts and crafts when it was necessary to make all things by hand. May the best of them be revived ! Now, let us talk of the selling of homemade rugs, from the point of view of the gift-shop owner or of the woman who deals in early American antiques. Perhaps you are such a woman and have an artistic shop or a quaint old house rilled with antiques, tucked snugly away in one of the river valleys of Maine, New Hampshire, or Vermont — or any other part of the country, for that matter. If so, you have 198 HANDMADE RUGS responded to the popular demand and are featuring handmade rugs, both antique and modern. Hooked, braided, and woven rugs are splendid sellers, if properly presented to the public, but there are a few facts that the dealer must know, if she is to make a success of this line of wares. The most important tiling of all to remember is that shoddy, ill-made rugs only cheapen the shops where they are displayed. Naturally, antique rugs are the most sought for, and bring the highest prices, but the mod- ern rug is not to be despised commercially. The sell- ing points to bring to the attention of a customer — in regard to hooked rugs — are the age, the fine- ness of texture, the originality and beauty of the design, the choice of coloring, the kind of material used in executing (woolen rugs bring higher prices than those made of cotton goods), and the sym- metry of shape. Like hooked rugs, braided rugs depend upon the material used, the choice of coloring, and the shape, for the prices which they bring. Possibly age does not play so great a part in the selling of a braided rug as it does in a hooked rug. Lovely braided rugs are now made by crafts workers. Many customers like rugs made to order to match a certain color scheme. The finer the braids used, the more valuable the rug. Woven rugs are good sellers only when new. Designs may be displayed in the shops, and orders taken to be carried out by a weaver on her loom. ©Keystone View Co. MAKING BRAIDS FOR A "tHREE-AND-THREE" RUG IS A PLEASANT OCCUPATION WHEN THE WINTER WINDS ARE BLOWING OUTSIDE COMMERCIAL OPPORTUNITIES 201 How shall handmade rugs be displayed to the best advantage? Do not pile them all together, helter- skelter, on tables, and expect your customers to sort them over. I like the method used by the owner of an overnight inn in Vermont. Her delightful rooms are furnished in old Colonial furniture, and on the floors before some of the choicest pieces are laid lovely hooked and braided rugs. These rugs are for sale and — let me whisper a secret — all of the fur- niture may be purchased, too. If you have only a small gift-shop, you cannot follow this plan, for the wear and tear on the rugs would be too great. But you can display a few on the walls, or lay one or two over a small table. Then, if your customer shows interest, others may be brought out for approval. Another form of dealing in rugs is selling antique hooked rugs in one's own home. I heard very recently of a woman who carries on such a business in her apartment. She buys only the most artistic and val- uable rugs which she can discover, and sells them to her friends and to interior decorators who are fur- nishing country homes for their clients. Now here is one point that I wish to bring to your attention, although it is not really a part of the commercial side of rug-making. That is the value of rug-making for classes in handicrafts in the public schools, and in institutions where crafts are promoted among the patients. Hooked and braided rugs are the best kinds for schoolchildren to make, but care 202 HANDMADE RUGS must be taken that the pieces attempted are not too large and too ambitious. A loom may also be in- stalled in the art department of a school, and instruc- tion be given in simple weaving. Adult workers can produce all kinds of handmade rugs. In one institu- tion with which I am familiar, the art of producing hooked rugs has just been introduced. It is a little early to pass judgment upon the results, but the workers are showing enthusiastic interest. Ten years ago, a man interested in the revival of old-time American handicrafts mournfully told me that the art of making hooked rugs was soon to be lost. Now, I am certain that he has changed his mind. For girls and women all over the country are showing a new interest in the arts and crafts of homespun days. Thoreau says the value of a thing is determined by the amount of life that goes into it. So home rug-making will live on, as far as the craftswoman expresses herself in the products of the rug hook, the needle, and the loom. BIBLIOGRAPHY Books Abnakee Bugs Helen R. Albee The John Landes Pattern Book Mary Meigs Atwater Principles of Design Ernest A. Batchelder Booklets on Hooked Rugs RALPH W. BlJRNIIAM Collector's Luck Alice Van Leer Carrick The Next-to-Nothing House Alice Van Leer Carrick Bract ieal Book of American Arts and Crafts Eberlein and McClure A Book of Hand-Woven Coverlets Eliza Calvert Hall The Craft of Hand-Made Rugs Amy Mali Hicks Batiks and How to Make Them Peter Mijer Dyes and Dyeing Charles E. Pellew Hooked Rugs and How to Make Them . . Anna Laise Phillips Modern Home Dyeing Martha Jane Phillips Weaving and Other Pleasant Occupations R. K. AND M. I. R. POLKINGHORNE New England Bygones Ellen H. Rollins Magazine Articles and Service Sheets "Service Sheets on Rug-Making" Woman's Home Companion — Good Housekeeping — Modern Priscilla "Everybody Is Braiding Mats". . . .Mary Foster Bainbridge Ladies'' Home Journal, October 1922 "Weave Your Own Rugs from Rags". . . .Elizabeth Boswell Delineator, May 1926 "More about Hooked Rugs" Leonard F. Burbank Antiques, November 1922 "Hooked Rugs" Mary Johnson Carey Antiquarian, May 1925 BIBLIOGRAPHY 205 "Scrap Bag Rugs" Alice Van Leer Carrick Ladies' Home Journal, October 1921 "The Repair of Hooked Rugs" Anne R. Congdon Antiques, August 1922 "A Memory of Grandmother's Mats". . Gertrude DeWager Antiques, June 1925 "Have You Made One? " Sara Hadley Country Gentleman, September 1925 "Where Cottage Craft Is Plied" Elizabeth E. Morse Modern Priscilla, February 1923 "When the Clock Reel Ticked" Amy V. Richards Modern Priscilla, Tercentenary Number, December 1920 "Humor in Hooked Rugs" Mabel S. S. Stone House Beautiful, November 1925 STERLING & FRANCINE CLARK ART INSTITUTE SSIS E.?a 8 Shannon/Handnjade rugs 3 1962 00017 4908