Designs
Archibold Knox Designs
During the last decade of the 19th Century, there was a great revival of Celtic decorative arts within the broader context of the English Arts and Crafts movement. This revival involved painters, poets, designers, and ceramic artists. Archibald Knox designed three carpets in 1903 for the Silver Studio that followed this theme. The popular colors of this trend were: Ochre to gold, brick to red brown, black-green, bronze-green, and blue green. These bold graphic designs were often mixed with other Arts and Crafts design ideas such as the finely detailed, intricate work of William Morris and Henry Dearle. The complete look however, was one of natural colors in harmony with the room and its furnishings. For example:
PC-1A Wiltshire |
PC-3A Grafton |
PC-26A Bromley
William Morris, Charles Voysey, Gavin Morton Designs
These three men and others that worked as outside contractors for Liberty’s of London, The Silver Studio, and numerous other less famous design firms influenced this group of designs. These firms usually hired designers for individual projects to create a line of fabrics or custom design a carpet for a particular application. A list of these free-lancers today would read like a veritable “who’s who” of the British Arts and Crafts movement. The color palettes all relate to the conceptual framework of the Arts and Crafts movement that relied on bringing the natural world indoors. America’s “well to do” were buying these carpets through the marketing efforts of Gustav Stickley, as well as several high profile department stores such as Wannamaker’s of Philadelphia and Marshall Fields of Chicago. For example:
PC-4A Stephanotis Flower |
PC-5C Chrysanthemum
PC-6A Wyndham |
PC-7A Oak Park |
PC-8A Voysey Border
PC-9A Duleek |
PC-10A Donnemara|
PC-11B Thistle
PC-15A Hammersmith |
PC-17A Redcar |
PC-18B Trumpet Flower
PC-22A Fintona |
PC-23A, PC-23E Lasenby |
PC-27A Darvel |
PC-28A Templeton
Prairie Style Designs
The Prairie Style movement developed in the American mid-west with its epicenter in Chicago. The architect Frank Lloyd Wright and several of his colleagues such as Louis Sullivan, Walter Griffin, and Marion Mahoney developed the idea which focused on straight lines, low houses, and open floor plans. Landscaping techniques continued this theme outside the confines of the structure to create a more expansive living space. The use of primary colors in the Prairie Style is more reserved, with greater emphasis on neutral colors and soft greens. For example:
PC-21A, PC-21B Ginkgo |
PC-29A, PC-29B Ginkgo Border
PC-31A, PC-31B Prairie Border |
PC-33A Prairie
