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Design for a carpet
Kingman, George - Enlarge image
Design for a carpet
- Object:
Design for a carpet
- Place of origin:
Great Britain, UK (made)
- Date:
third quarter 19th century (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Kingman, George (artist)
- Materials and Techniques:
Pencil and body colour
- Museum number:
E.544:28-1956
- Gallery location:
Prints & Drawings Study Room, level F, case 92, shelf B, box 31
Textiles are easily damaged and very few British machine made carpets of the 19th century survive. Designs for carpets are much rarer than those for printed cottons and other textiles. George Kingman made this design, one of 105 in an album, for a firm in Kidderminster. It is a particularly valuable indication of what the carpets must have looked like. Because of the general dirt and soot, a light-coloured carpet must have been restricted to special locations. In some cases, protective covers of plain, coarse woven cloth called ‘druggets’ would have been used. They were similar to those used for expensive upholstered furniture.
