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Lot Essay
The best known and most successful carpet weaving workshops in England were the looms established in 1755 at Axminster by Thomas Whitty, an energetic weaver who recognized the growing demand for carpets among the English aristocracy and wealthy merchant classes.
The carpet offered here, while not seemingly documented in the existing literature on Axminster carpets, has many distinguishing features that make it indisputably a product of the Axminster looms. Most notably, the resplendent flowering baskets and the floral sprays of the field can be found on at least six other Axminster carpets of the period, including one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, formerly owned by the Earl of Ellenborough. The use of the underlying tone-on-tone floral trellis of the field can also be found on several other Axminster carpets: a carpet in the Henry Francis du Pont Collections at Winterthur (circa 1760-80) and another carpet sold from the Estate of Mary, Duchess of Roxburghe, Sotheby's London, 27-28 May 2015.
Although the present carpet is missing its original borders, it is possible that this carpet is only missing a narrow, decorative guard stripe.
The carpet offered here, while not seemingly documented in the existing literature on Axminster carpets, has many distinguishing features that make it indisputably a product of the Axminster looms. Most notably, the resplendent flowering baskets and the floral sprays of the field can be found on at least six other Axminster carpets of the period, including one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, formerly owned by the Earl of Ellenborough. The use of the underlying tone-on-tone floral trellis of the field can also be found on several other Axminster carpets: a carpet in the Henry Francis du Pont Collections at Winterthur (circa 1760-80) and another carpet sold from the Estate of Mary, Duchess of Roxburghe, Sotheby's London, 27-28 May 2015.
Although the present carpet is missing its original borders, it is possible that this carpet is only missing a narrow, decorative guard stripe.