Rug
a woven mat. Historically the word means rough; hence a rug is a rough piece of heavy cloth. The word is applied to a lap-robe, to a traveler's heavy wrap, to a bed-quilt, but ordinarily to a square or oblong covering for the floor. By way of distinction, the word tapestry applies to hangings. As distinguished from a carpet, a genuine rug is woven in one piece and is laid loosely on the floor or ground or in front of a bed or fireplace. Owing to the ease with which rugs may be taken outside and dusted, loose rugs and hardwood floors are gaining rapidly in favor. For this reason, carpeting is now made up largely in the form of removable rugs.
The rug is of great antiquity. There were rugs in the houses of the Homeric heroes. The palaces of the Egyptian pharaohs were furnished with rugs. At a famous banquet at Rhodes, we read that "underneath two hundred golden couches were strewn handsomely embroidered rugs," and that "Persian cloths covered the space where guests walked, having true figures of animals embroidered on them." The weavers of Babylon were famous for rugs. Rugs, many of them emblazoned with jewels, formed no small part of the eastern wealth that Alexander coveted.
The rug is oriental. Long before the European savage had learned even to strew rushes for his comfort, Persia and India were noted for handsome and costly rugs. From the earliest days of caravan traffic, rugs for the western market formed one of the important articles of oriental commerce. Both Greeks and Romans esteemed oriental rugs. The Moors brought the use of rugs into Spain. The Venetians imported eastern rugs into Italy and western Europe. In the Middle Ages rugs were spread in the presence chambers of kings, before the high altars of cathedrals, in ladies' bowers, at open air feasts, by the minstrel singers, and by the fortune teller. Descriptions of festivals and banquets and coronations lay stress on the use of rich tapestry rugs embroidered with gold.
Among the nomadic peoples of Europe the rug has seemingly answered the purpose of the buffalo robe among the western American Indians. Rugs easily carried from place to place form a grateful protection where spread on the hot sand, whether in tent or under the shelter of a palm tree. The devout Mohammedan is never without his prayer rug. When the hour arrives, even the camel driver alights, places his rug on the sand--the point of the figure toward Mecca--and performs his devotions.
About 1664 Colbert, the minister of Louis XIV, introduced the business of rug and tapestry weaving into France. The industry thus started spread into Belgium, Great Britain, and elsewhere, developing finally into the modern industry of carpet weaving. Persia, India, and Turkey are seats of the rug industry. In Persia particularly, the inhabitants of many villages have been rug weavers for generations. Rug weaving requires patience and skill. Dyeing is an art in itself. Formerly only vegetable dyes, as indigo and madder, were used, but of late, despite royal edicts to the contrary, the use of the cheaper but less durable aniline dyes has crept in. The prevailing colors are red, brown, orange, and creamy white, blue, and green, in many lustrous tints and hues. The ground of a prayer rug is green, the sacred color of Mohammedanism. The loom is primitive. The warp, usually of linen or hemp, is stretched in a frame. The woof, usually of the finest wool, is tied in by hand, and is cut off. These knots or tufts are pressed closely together and held in place by the tying. The short, free ends form a close, velvety surface that presents the ends of the fibers to the foot. The amount of work involved in the finer rugs is incredible. The finest require over nine hundred knots to the square inch. The very coarsest require forty knots. A deft workman can knot three ties per minute. A large silken Kashmir rug exhibited in England in 1851 had pile an inch thick. It was composed of 100,000 knots or tufts, not to the square yard, but to the square foot. The rugmaker works according to patterns, choosing each thread for its color. Rugs made in this way are the most durable kind of carpet known. Some of these rugs have been in constant use in Persian palaces for over 300 years.
The rugs of India find their way to market chiefly by way of Bombay. The rugs of Persia and Afghanistan come west by caravan until they strike a railway. They are marketed largely by way of Constantinople. Turkish rugs, by far the greater bulk of modern oriental rugs, are shipped also from Constantinople, but chiefly from Smyrna. The latter city is the most noted rug market in the world. The most expensive rugs are antique, that is, second-hand rugs from the old Asiatic centers of rug making. The dyes, wools, and patient workmanship of the Persians cannot be duplicated. In fact, the longer their antique rugs are worn, the more lustrous they become. A large Persian rug was sold at auction in 1903 in New York City for $45,000. Antiques valued at several thousand dollars may be seen in the stores of any large city, as Chicago, and $500 rugs are not infrequently displayed in the smaller cities, though one-tenth of the latter sum, or possibly even $20, will purchase a beautiful prayer rug that has traveled with caravans and been spread beneath the knees of devout worshippers, it may be, for a century or two.
See Carpet; Weaving; Bayeux Tapestry; Lace; Persia; Shawl; Navajo; Dye; Smyrna; Cashmere; Tapestry