InANTIQUES ANTIQUE EUROPEAN CARPETS
Elegant Rugs Reflecting Centuries of Culture and Tradition
BY RODNEY HAKIM, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
I n this Fall 2025 issue of RUG and designs of yesteryear are en vogue once again, and are being reiterated across the carpet continuum, from new rugs to antique rugs. INSIDER magazine, we are focusing on traditional rugs, how the styles
In past installments of this series of InANTIQUES articles, we have explored numerous styles of traditional antique Persian rugs, ranging from refined city rugs to more rudimentary village and tribal rugs, explaining how each style reflects the aesthetic and culture of the artisans and townspeople who wove them. We have also discussed how much of the rug weaving in Persia at the turn of the 20th century had its traditional Middle Eastern styling reoriented by the newly prominent Western export companies, so as to better fit the aesthetic criteria of wealthy Western patrons and buyers in Europe and the Americas. We also discussed in previous articles how in 15th-19th century Europe, one of the most important forms of cultural expression, and of signalling of luxury and status, was the antique tapestry, which would adorn the walls of European palaces, churches, estates, and in later times, private homes.
If we put these pieces of the puzzle together, and say that European buyers from the 15th - 19th centuries and thereafter would utilize European tapestries on their walls, and at the turn of the 20th century and after, would favor Persian carpets for their floors, then what can we say about what these European buyers would have on their floors in prior centuries? The answer is that from the 15th - 19th centuries, rug production in Europe, itself, was all the rage within the Continent, with such styles as Savonnerie, Aubusson, Needlepoint, Arts & Crafts, and Donegal being amongst the most popular, and being among the most important forms of cultural expression and opulence in the respective locations that were producing them.
Depending on what country one was in, some of those fashionable European carpets might have even had their origins in an atelier of highly sought after professional weavers, and in other cases, could be made in a place that was full of soap. Wait… WHAT??? EUROPEAN TRADITION FROM WALLS TO FLOORS The verdure tapestry was one of the most prevalent decorative textiles that appeared in European homes from the 15th-19th centuries, with verdure being French for greenery, and with these wall hangings depicting a tranquil verdant landscape, with an idealized vision of nature, for a continent that was gradually progressing from an agrarian to an industrial society,
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