- Born of a Mennonite farmer in Collegeville, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Horace G. Fetterolf founded the Fetterolf Royal Carpet Company in Philadelphia Pennsylvania during the 1870s. Both he and his brother, Abraham, became very successful with their business pursuits following good educations and nobel life principles instilled by their parents
 (Ellwood Roberts' Biographical Annals, 1904: Montgomery Co, PA Vol II - Part 1: pp. 1-24. Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Joe Patterson and Susan Walters). Another reference mentions Horace Fetterolf and family, of Ambler, which was a continuing extensive carpet manufacturer at Wayne Junction, noted during 1902.
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 The Fetterolf Carpet Company was never considered one of the "giants" of the Philadelphia carpet industries; this was most due to the company carrying its own weight and failing to follow the evolution models of competing mills within the same city. Fetterolf's competitors grew through mergers and company acquisitions. The family oriented company followed the opposing model which paralleled the Whittall Mills of Worcestor, Mass to the north. The company remained family oriented and managed to be a great success while the corporate, mafia, and stock market disaster victims all fell to powers beyond their  control. In the end, Fetterolf long outlasted many the other Philadelphia based carpet mills.
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- While Fetterolf historically enjoyed most of its success during the decades between 1890 and 1920, the mill was a prominent force within the market throughout the roaring twenties and well into the depression.
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- The demise of the mill is not certain. However, the legacy still lives on today with the exceptionally high quality carpets that
 were woven on their looms. We have had the pleasure of handling many of their decorative carpets during the last 40 years. Many of these wilton rugs were guaranteed for atleast 15 years when they were sold new from the Mills. The continued lasting and wonderful condition of these pieces is a testament to the discriminating and fastidious workmanship of the Wilton weavers. The fine worstered wool will still gaurentee many years of use by a caring owner. The fantastic design is indeed very desirable to the connoisseur, collector and to the home owner with a taste for the finer historical rugs and antiquities.
- Click on an picture for an enlargement.
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CONDITION: This period rug has a surprisingly good full consistent pile over the majority of the rug. The rug is free of low, worn, and threadbare areas. There are some specks of old moth damage, particularly at one corner (see close up for detail). There is no possibility of further moth activity - please see cleaning notes below. There are two tiny red furniture stains along one side, these can be removed chemically (our conservation staff does not do any chemical treatments of any kind). Several short areas of the seams show upon extremely close examination (please see close up for detail) this is not visually distracting or particularly noticable as you can see in the numerous photographs above. The original fringe was almost completely gone, it has been replaced with a Shaneybrook woven genuine wilton fringe appropriate to the period of this rug.
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.
APPRAISAL
Very few recent book references can be found on Whittall or other wilton rugs. The only reference of recent years can appears in "The illustrated buyer's guide to Oriental carpets" by J.R. Azizollahoff, copywrite March 2002, page 100, displays several Whittall's wilton rugs.
The 9' x 12' Samarkand Wilton in the book shows "slight wear, uneven fading, small stains," and was valued at $6,000.00. Another 9' x 12' Bird Of Paradise piece shown in far better condition was valued at $7,500.00.
This fine piece is being offered here without the decorator markup.
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