9' x 14' 6" Ladice Ispahan Arts & Crafts Oriental Bigelow-Hartford Imperial Bossorah Axminister Rug (Circa 1920-1930).

Picture 1

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The exceptional finely woven carpet shown here was woven in the fine axminister weave at the mills of the oldest carpet weaver 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.

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 herein is 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.

CONDITION: The rug has a full consistent pile with one minor lower area on the side of the field. There is one tinted/stained corner. There is minor scattered moth damage one the sides and ends. There is one dime sized rust spot along a side edge.

CLEANING: This rug has been professionally hand cleaned by our conservation staff with a restorative thorough washing adhering to National Institute of Textiles and AIC (American Institute for the Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works) guidelines. 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. For more information on our unique cleaning process, please see 'cleaning' in the 'services' section of our website.

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