Graphic English Art Deco Carpet

#18992

English Art Deco Carpet

Possibly Designed by Marion Dorn

8’8” x 11’9” (2.64m by 3.58m)

Circa 1930’s

This carpet bears the partially illegible label of the Anglo … Carpet Company.  On an all wool foundation, with double wefts, it is coarsely symmetrically knotted in three-ply wool with a pile about ½ inch deep.  As is the case with the overwhelming majority of English 30’s Art Deco carpets, there is no border. The ivory ground displays diagonals with giant red spots and black/ivory scale patterns. The pattern is geometric, abstract and hard-edged, with no hint of floral or other realistic elements. However, the large dots have a mobility and seem to drift across the carpet.  There is nothing static about the layout, rather a strong sense of diagonal motion.

Marion Dorn (1899-1964), an American by birth, was active in Britain between the wars and worked with, among others, the Wilton Royal Carpet Factory in the late 1920’s.  She was not known to have collaborated with the Anglo … Carpet Company, however, hence the Dorn attribution is only speculative. The carpet is certainly in her style and no other English designer of the period was so strongly graphic. The strong abstract pattern is broadly similar to, but more mobile than, the black and white carpets she designed for Claridge’s Hotel c. 1935.  If the carpet is from another (now unknown) artist, it is certainly of high decorative quality.

The condition is excellent, and all finishes are intact. There are no repairs and it is completely original.

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Abstract English Tufted Carpet

#20-3022

English Tufted Carpet

By Ron Nixon

9’3” x 11’9”

C. 1970

Wool Pile on a cotton canvas ground, jute lining.  Excellent condition.

This borderless English carpet is stamped on the jute lining “Designed and made by Ron Nixon”.  The abstract, Op Art pattern is a geometric array of semi-circles, parallelograms, fat S-shapes, triangles, and various sinuous sections.  The sections are in a wide range of colors, including royal blue, straw, rust, black, various greens, navy, sand and a few shaded, bitonal areas. Not only do the sections vary in tone, but the wool is different in each as well. The differences are quite easily visible, and the feel sets each apart from the others. Each color must have been dyed separately with a specific wool batch. However, the pile is all at the same level. The tufting process was carried out through a mechanical process on a cotton ground canvas, operated by skilled operatives following a cartoon.  Needles were used to insert the variously colored wool yarns. A room size carpet could be completed in a few days via the tufting method, which is much faster than hand knotting. The totally geometric style is consistent with the late 1960’s or early 1970’s.

This one of a kind piece was commissioned by National Westminster Bank in Glasgow, Scotland for the offices of the Area Managing Director.

The designer, Ron Nixon worked with another prominent British textile artist in the 1970’s, Barbara Brown, and was also a well-known painter working in a hard-edged abstract style in primary colors. The carpet is very Mod in design, in keeping with the stylistic trends of the period. The restraint of Art Deco has been replaced by a riot of colors. Nixon’s carpet work is relatively rare outside of the U.K. and we are pleased to present such a striking example with a solid provenance.

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