Lot Essay
On inheriting Scarisbrick Hall in 1860, Anne Lady Hunloke asked Edward Welby Pugin to improve on and extend the work his father had already performed for her brother. Edward Pugin's largest addition to the house was the East Wing in which the Blue Drawing Room is the most complete survivor. In this room, while the fireplace is in his own more decorative style typical of the 1860s, the stained glass windows and in particular the ceiling with its powerful composition is closer to his father's style.
This carpet, commissioned for the same room, is an archetypal example of the same tradition; the fine decorative details are confined to small areas within a very well structured design. However, while the feeling of the carpet and ceiling is the same, the former does not follow the later eighteenth and early nineteenth century concept of mirroring design above. Its colouring in particular, with the terracottas and sandy tones, is chosen to complement rather than reflect the blue walls and heavy golden ceiling. The choice of the design and in particular the colouring owes its inspiration to mediaeval tiles. This influence is also seen in the floor of the main corridor, executed in tile mosaic, which is impossible to attribute with certainty to one Pugin rather than the other. With regard to the individual motifs, the initials are obviously those of the patron, Anne Scarisbrick, while the dove is the crest of the Scarisbrick family. The motif in the narrow main border is interesting to note. On a larger scale it appears in one of the elder Pugin's carpet designs, while about ten years later the same motif with little alteration was used by William Morris for the border of his Redcar Carpet.
While some of the carpet designs of A.W.N.Pugin have survived and are now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, (A. Wedgewood: A.W.N. Pugin and the Pugin Family, London, 1985, nos.840-871, pp.270-274), none of the carpets themselves have been published if they have survived at all. Some designs were certainly executed through the agency of J.G.Crace, the interior decorator for whom both Pugins designed. Crace exhibited a number of carpets in the Great Exhibition of 1851, some of the designs for which are probably those in the Victoria and Albert Museum. One of these designs indeed has 'carpet done' written in the margin in Crace's hand. Only one carpet design by Edward Pugin is known, that for an altar rug at Ushaw, Co. Durham (Wedgewood, op. cit., no.1080, p.313). Interestingly the colours of this are yellow, blue, red and green; exactly the same palette as he uses here. No actual carpets by him are known.
It is probable that the carpet was actually woven at Wilton. This was the centre for the largest production of handwoven carpets in England at this period, and probably the only workshop capable of producing a carpet of this size, its looms being up to 40ft. in width. While Crace was eager to publicise the clients that he supplied, his records understandably do not reveal the manufacturers that were used. Wherever it was woven, this carpet is the only known room size Pugin carpet in public or private hands.
This carpet, commissioned for the same room, is an archetypal example of the same tradition; the fine decorative details are confined to small areas within a very well structured design. However, while the feeling of the carpet and ceiling is the same, the former does not follow the later eighteenth and early nineteenth century concept of mirroring design above. Its colouring in particular, with the terracottas and sandy tones, is chosen to complement rather than reflect the blue walls and heavy golden ceiling. The choice of the design and in particular the colouring owes its inspiration to mediaeval tiles. This influence is also seen in the floor of the main corridor, executed in tile mosaic, which is impossible to attribute with certainty to one Pugin rather than the other. With regard to the individual motifs, the initials are obviously those of the patron, Anne Scarisbrick, while the dove is the crest of the Scarisbrick family. The motif in the narrow main border is interesting to note. On a larger scale it appears in one of the elder Pugin's carpet designs, while about ten years later the same motif with little alteration was used by William Morris for the border of his Redcar Carpet.
While some of the carpet designs of A.W.N.Pugin have survived and are now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, (A. Wedgewood: A.W.N. Pugin and the Pugin Family, London, 1985, nos.840-871, pp.270-274), none of the carpets themselves have been published if they have survived at all. Some designs were certainly executed through the agency of J.G.Crace, the interior decorator for whom both Pugins designed. Crace exhibited a number of carpets in the Great Exhibition of 1851, some of the designs for which are probably those in the Victoria and Albert Museum. One of these designs indeed has 'carpet done' written in the margin in Crace's hand. Only one carpet design by Edward Pugin is known, that for an altar rug at Ushaw, Co. Durham (Wedgewood, op. cit., no.1080, p.313). Interestingly the colours of this are yellow, blue, red and green; exactly the same palette as he uses here. No actual carpets by him are known.
It is probable that the carpet was actually woven at Wilton. This was the centre for the largest production of handwoven carpets in England at this period, and probably the only workshop capable of producing a carpet of this size, its looms being up to 40ft. in width. While Crace was eager to publicise the clients that he supplied, his records understandably do not reveal the manufacturers that were used. Wherever it was woven, this carpet is the only known room size Pugin carpet in public or private hands.