Lot Essay
This magnificent carpet was commissioned in the later 1760s by Sir Peter Byrne Leicester Bt. (d.1770) for the elegant classical Drawing- Room at Tabley House, Cheshire. The house had recently been created by the celebrated York architect John Carr (d.1807) in the full classical style of the period with imposing Doric columned portico, between 1760 and 1767. Furniture began to be ordered in 1764 and bills continued to be paid, particularly on the occasion of Sir Peter's death in 1770. The inventory of the contents of the new house, completed on the death of Sir Peter, notes the 'large carpet' in the drawing-room.
The design of the carpet incorporates taste that was fully up to date at the time. The red ground colour was created by the Gobelins for Madame de Pompadour and had just achieved popularity this side of the Channel. The design also includes allusions to various Roman gods, appropriate for a commission which was for a consciously classical house. The scallop-shells in the border allude to Venus while the conches seen in the side borders refer to Neptune, appropriately on a blue ground. The central roundel is formed of Flora's garlands entwined with Ceres' corn garlands, which together celebrate the Nature Goddesses' triumph. The whole is enclosed within a golden echinous egg-and-dart stripe, a motif which goes around most of the cornicing in the house. The same central medallion can be found in an Axminster carpet made for Ramsbury Manor, Wiltshire (J. Cornforth, The Inspiration of the Past - Country House Taste in the Twentieth Century, London, 1985, pl. 161, and B. Jacobs, Axminster Carpets -- Hand made -- 1755-1957, Leigh-on-Sea, 1970, pl. 34), while the motif of the crossed palms appears in a more prominent form on the slightly later famous Axminster carpet made for the Music Room at Powderham Castle in Devon, which was delivered in 1789 (B. Jacobs, op.cit., frontispiece and pl.49). The entwined garlands are also a prominent feature of the contemporaneous 'Adam' style group of carpets where they are enclosed within a far more prominent roundel (B. Jacobs, op.cit., pls. 52-56) of a design based on the ceiling decoration of the Anteroom of Syon House, designed by Adam in 1762.
Thomas Whitty established his workshop at Axminster in Devon in 1755. Just before this there had been a massive increase of interest in the possibility of manufacturing pile carpets on a commercial scale in this country, started by two weavers who fled the French apprenticeship system having worked at the Savonnerie. By 1760 there were three commercial ventures in operation: Claude Passavent in Exeter, Thomas Moore at Moorefields in London, and Thomas Whitty in Axminster. During the years 1757-1759 George II's Academy for promoting Arts and Sciences awarded a pile carpet prize. Each time the odds were stacked so that it was much more difficult for somebody who had already won to do so again. Despite this, Whitty won on all three occasions, the first two times sharing the prize with one of the other two manufacturers while on the third occasion he won outright.
The first of these ventures rapidly went out of business; the Exeter products were of magnificent quality but were priced at a level that proved unacceptable in this country. Thomas Moore continued until around the 1790s, but it was Whitty whose company continued in various guises, including a transfer of location to Wilton into the present century. The present day trade terms for the best quality machine made carpeting, 'Axminster' and 'Wilton' come from the success of Whitty's manufacture.
This carpet was still at Tabley when that house was the subject of two articles in Country Life on July 21st and July 28th, 1923; it can clearly be seen on the floor of the Old Entrance Hall (now known as the Portico Room) in pl.6 of the first of these. At some stage after this it was transferred to Davenport House in Shropshire where it was used until recently in the Drawing-Room (formerly the Dining-Room).
The design of the carpet incorporates taste that was fully up to date at the time. The red ground colour was created by the Gobelins for Madame de Pompadour and had just achieved popularity this side of the Channel. The design also includes allusions to various Roman gods, appropriate for a commission which was for a consciously classical house. The scallop-shells in the border allude to Venus while the conches seen in the side borders refer to Neptune, appropriately on a blue ground. The central roundel is formed of Flora's garlands entwined with Ceres' corn garlands, which together celebrate the Nature Goddesses' triumph. The whole is enclosed within a golden echinous egg-and-dart stripe, a motif which goes around most of the cornicing in the house. The same central medallion can be found in an Axminster carpet made for Ramsbury Manor, Wiltshire (J. Cornforth, The Inspiration of the Past - Country House Taste in the Twentieth Century, London, 1985, pl. 161, and B. Jacobs, Axminster Carpets -- Hand made -- 1755-1957, Leigh-on-Sea, 1970, pl. 34), while the motif of the crossed palms appears in a more prominent form on the slightly later famous Axminster carpet made for the Music Room at Powderham Castle in Devon, which was delivered in 1789 (B. Jacobs, op.cit., frontispiece and pl.49). The entwined garlands are also a prominent feature of the contemporaneous 'Adam' style group of carpets where they are enclosed within a far more prominent roundel (B. Jacobs, op.cit., pls. 52-56) of a design based on the ceiling decoration of the Anteroom of Syon House, designed by Adam in 1762.
Thomas Whitty established his workshop at Axminster in Devon in 1755. Just before this there had been a massive increase of interest in the possibility of manufacturing pile carpets on a commercial scale in this country, started by two weavers who fled the French apprenticeship system having worked at the Savonnerie. By 1760 there were three commercial ventures in operation: Claude Passavent in Exeter, Thomas Moore at Moorefields in London, and Thomas Whitty in Axminster. During the years 1757-1759 George II's Academy for promoting Arts and Sciences awarded a pile carpet prize. Each time the odds were stacked so that it was much more difficult for somebody who had already won to do so again. Despite this, Whitty won on all three occasions, the first two times sharing the prize with one of the other two manufacturers while on the third occasion he won outright.
The first of these ventures rapidly went out of business; the Exeter products were of magnificent quality but were priced at a level that proved unacceptable in this country. Thomas Moore continued until around the 1790s, but it was Whitty whose company continued in various guises, including a transfer of location to Wilton into the present century. The present day trade terms for the best quality machine made carpeting, 'Axminster' and 'Wilton' come from the success of Whitty's manufacture.
This carpet was still at Tabley when that house was the subject of two articles in Country Life on July 21st and July 28th, 1923; it can clearly be seen on the floor of the Old Entrance Hall (now known as the Portico Room) in pl.6 of the first of these. At some stage after this it was transferred to Davenport House in Shropshire where it was used until recently in the Drawing-Room (formerly the Dining-Room).