8' 10" x 11' 9" Antique Kurdish Oriental Hartford Saxony Wilton Rug (Circa 1910).

Picture 1

Please click on the picture above for an enlargement.

The exceptional finely woven carpet shown here was woven in the highest possible quality jacquard wilton weave at the mills of the oldest carpet weaving company in America: Bigelow.

Founded in 1838 by Ernest Bigelow, the company had a modest beginning with its production of coachlace in a small neglected mill in Lancaster, Mass. Ernest had a talent for making improvements and innovations which allow his business, The Clinton Company, to quickly contract with other mills to increase their manufacture. Eventually, he conceived of and perfected the first power loom, which would revolutionize the weaving of carpets and create an unstoppable monstrous new American industry.

To fully understand the development of America's carpet industry, one must research hundreds of books, pamphlets, receipts, tax paperwork, company ledgers, and correspondence of all those involved. Bigelow, being the oldest American carpet mill, becomes a model for the trends and business practices that would recurr again and again, and even still continuing today...

Not terribly long after the recession that followed the American civil war, Bigelow began a series of mergers and acquisitions of other mills and carpet companies. With ever few years, Bigelow's name changed slightly as it incorporated and/or combined with other companies to increase its market share and strength.

The pattern shown here appears in the Bigelow-Hartford catalog of 1915 (above right). The actual catalog page is shown above left.

In 1899, the Lowell Manufacturing Company and Bigelow Carpet Company merged keeping the name as the new Bigelow Carpet Company.

In 1901, the E. S. Higgins Carrpet Company merged with Hartford Company to form the Hartford Carpet Corporation.

In 1914, the Hartford Carpet Corporation and Bigelow Carpet Company merged to form the Bigelow-Hartford Carpet Company.

By the mid 1920s, now known as Bigelow-Hartford, Ernest Bigelow's weaving business had become the largest carpet and rug manufacture in the world. As can be seen in the photograph on the right, Bigelow-Hartford's three mills look more like cities than a simple factory. Adjacent the mill, like many of its competitors, Bigelow-Hartford built entire town's, and even thousands of houses which it owned for its employees and their family's to live in while working at the massive manufacturing facilities.

The company survived recessions, two world wars, recessions, and still exists today, though now it is just a small part of the Mohawk Group, which is thought to be the largest manufacturer of carpet in America today. Old habits die hard...

Unlike today's products that carry the Bigelow name, under the Mohawk umbrella, Bigelow's earlier weavings still survive today as a testament to their unyeilding attention to quality. Though the remaining examples are rare, it is still possible to find a Bigelow carpet on the floor of a well kept household.

Bigelow's ingrain, axminister rugs, and wilton rugs have been passed from generation to generation, and yet again to generation. Their beauty and workmanship echoes the energy of our grandparents and their predicessors which all new a work-ethic which seems far removed from today's quick paced instant-gratification society.

Very few of these pieces have survived in such wonderful condition. Most are only found in fragments, partial strips, and threadbare with little to no pattern remaining. Here, we have a treasure and an exquisit quality that has more than withstood its test of time.

The rug shown here is one of the highest quality wilton weave Bigelow offered. To achieve this level of fineness or density of carpet, each loom wove only twenty-seven or fewer inches of carpet in strips which would be later sown together by hand. To weave larger widths, during this era, the wider carpet would have to be woven with less density, or in other words, a lower quality of carpet or rug (a picture on the right shows a very large "seamless" wilton carpet being woven on a huge jacquard wilton loom). As in the example shown here, the center of the rug is two twenty-seven inch widths, while the border sections are eighteen inches. This allowed the total width to be eight feet and three inches width. Four strips of twenty-seven inch carpet be make a nine foot wide carpet. The method of weaving this high quality wilton continues today in America at the Shaneybrook mill (in Parkton, Maryland) and a handful of mills in the United Kingdom and Europe.

Click on any picture for an enlargement.

CONDITION: The rug shows both good pile and low areas with some staining/tinting as shown.

CLEANING: This rug has been professionally hand cleaned by our own conservation team with a restorative thorough washing adhering to National Institute of Textiles and AIC (American Institute for the Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works) guidelines. The protein and lanolin based soap conditions the natural fibres in the rug and returns the original lustrous character and richness of colour to the wool. No steam extraction methods or chemical detergents were used during the cleaning process. Ever step possible was taken to preserve the historic nature and conserve the rugs condition.

We do not use ANY optical enhancers of any kind (natural or chemical). Optical enhancers damage and pull dye to the surface of the rug's fibres, slowly stripping colour and character from the wool as the rug continues to age. Beware of descriptions claiming use of such materials and harsh cleaning methods to "brighten, add a sheen, or antique wash" the rugs -- all these methods deteriorate and damage these wonderful vintage and antique pieces beyond repair.

Click here to contact Shaneybrook about this rug. Reference Number: #631