Loving on this eclectic and down to earth space from our recent install in a NYC apartment.
The feel is clean, modern, and minimal with natural textures and reflective surfaces juxtaposing dark accents and plush fabrics.
There’s something about the way that Chinese Deco carpets pair with crushed velvet couches that has a sophisticated air about it. The soft warm tones and minimal dark accents of the rug make it a perfect fit for this room.
Love the look? Here’s some comparables for you to swoon over.
Let us know if you love one enough to try it at home!
As seen in Wallpaper Magazine, Kelly Behun was asked to design the first model residence at The Whiteley – housed in a historic former department store near Hyde Park, London – and reimagined by Foster + Partners Architects into a project comprised of 139 apartments as well as a Six Senses hotel & spa; all a short walk from Hyde Park.
Kelly used Chinese carpets in a few of the spaces – the perfect accompaniment to her punchy and eclectic style. Bold color and reflective surfaces juxtapose soft tones and subtle textures for a cohesive space which communicates harmony through contrast.
The moody sophistication of color rich spaces connect with the peacefully cultured opposition of the living areas - a yin and yang of energies for work and life. Richly subdued colors in the artwork, the accents, and the carpets bridge the two vibes.
Ready to get bold in your home? Here’s a whole pile of comparables for you to bring that Kelly Behun look to your floor.
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.
Modernist designer Jean-Michel Frank was able to combine his love of beautiful materials with his preference for strict geometric forms. Due to his strict adherence to geometrical forms and simple unobtrusive design elements, many times he was required to design and create many of the items needed in his projects. In many of these undertakings not only would he have had to design the interiors, but also the other objects of the room such as furniture, wall fabrics, light fixtures, and hardware; as well as the carpets and other means of floor covering.
The present piece is amongst the few Aubussons that show the clear influence of Jean-Michel Frank’s design. The power of clear and simple geometrical patterns combined with the grand scale of the rug is what makes it uniquely a Jean-Michel Frank Signature piece. The design of the carpet makes it very easily fit in to many varied but related styles of decorating such as English Arts & Crafts (William Morris), American Prairie style (Frank Lloyd Wright), and French Art Deco (Jean-Michel Frank).
With its wide linear/cubical border design and vast open expanses of the field, unbroken by any design element except for gradually varying tones of the same shade of color, it has an understated elegance that can only be created by the master designer Jean-Michel Frank.
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.
Looking to make a statement with your interior? Antique Chinese Art Deco rugs may be just the piece you are looking for to meet that criteria. With strong colors, and bold designs, they are an optimal choice for your modern space.
Symbols
A Chinese tradition
Symbolic imagery is used in many forms of Asian art, and the carpet has not been left out of this tradition. Symbols can be a constant source of conversation in your space.
Flowers
A bouquet of color
Many of your basic Chinese art deco carpets are adorned with colorful bursts of flowers, which pop brightly off of the solid background giving the pieces character and contrast.
Dragons
Bearer of good fortune
The dragon can be depicted in many ways within the woven arts of China, but almost always they are a symbol of positive forces – bringing with them health, wealth, happiness, and knowledge.
Birds
Meaning takes flight
There are many meanings for the use of birds within Chinese symbolism – changing with the variety of bird depicted. Peacocks represent good luck and fortune, while the Crane may express longevity and wisdom, and the duck may symbolize loyalty.
Color
Bright and bold
Some rugs are all about strength of color – an attribute which may make the boldest statement in the space you’re working with.
Whatever the statement you are trying to make with your rug – Chinese Art Deco carpets are a surefire way to emphasize drama in your decor. View our collection of antique Chinese Deco rugs to find your perfect match today!
Today, minimalism reigns in much of the decorative carpet world. No borders, no traditional patterns, no classic design protocols. It is all so new, or is it? You might be surprised to discover that border less carpets, with minimal or even no patterns, in monochrome colors, were a considerable design thing in America in the 1930’s. The Great Depression affected domestic carpet demand. A flood of Persian goods shouldered aside the dominant Chinese carpets in the 1930’s and exports plummeted. Prices fell and manufacturers’ cost had to be reined in. This meant less design and faster weaving times, reducing labor costs. The trend from jazzy 1920’s Art Deco to more hard edged, more graphic 1930’s Art Deco can be seen in carpets from both European and Chinese sources.
Nichols was the leading, most stylish of the American firms in Tientsin, and most attuned to decorative trends. This group of progressively more minimalist Nichols antique Chinese Art Deco carpets is the result. One of the first things is to eliminate the borders, producing a uniform single allover tonality. On this is laid an asymmetric, two corner pattern. In our number 20288 (11’9″x 8’10”, 1920), the saturated navy ground is open except for two mountain “coins” in one corner and one diagonally across. These are most subtly embedded in tone-on-tone striated segments. The rich midnight ground does the talking here, a minimalism with a real presence.
Minimalism does not have to mean self effacing. Orange-pink, never found in nature, gives a real punch to our 22091 (12’0″x9’0″, c. 1920) with bamboo fret and writhing dragon diagonally opposed in the corners. The same tonality appears in number 22131 (15’10″x12’0″, early 1900) which is totally without any pattern, no secondary colors. This is as minimalist as you can get, except the tonality is not. Today, minimalist means taupe, tan, beige, ivory, straw or some other non-color, totally inoffensive, total ignorable. You just can’t ignore Deco Chinese minimalist carpets.
Almost as restrained in pattern is our royal blue carpet number 22616 (13’2″x10’0″, early 1930) with a design wholly delineated by carving alone. The color is magnificent and the subtle pattern makes the viewer’s eye work a bit, which should happen when appreciating a work of art. A close-up picture gives an idea of the subtle style of this piece.
Chinese Art Deco Rug #22616, size 13’2″x10’0″
Finally, two carpets with the same open fields, and geometric bud and rectangle opposite corners are number 20997 (11’4″x8’8″ c. 1930, royal blue) and 21781 (11’3″x8’6″, c. 1930, cardinal red) are wholly in the 30’s style, sharply drawn with a pars-pro-toot rendering of floral ornament. The corners cannot be ignored, but the almost minimalist fields easily dominate.
What these and other “minimalist” antique Art Deco Chinese carpets have in common are strong, saturated tonalities, superb physical texture and real personalities. Nothing wishy washy or non-committal about them. They have a commanding presence. Thus minimal need not be synonymous with invisible or ignorable. They worked with Art Deco furniture, the first Western unornamented furnishing style and they will work with whatever you throw at them!.
The color mavens at the Pantone Color Institute have settled on a hue for 2017: “Greenery” (no. 15-0343), a grassy , welcoming green, with a touch of yellow and not at all deep or foresty. Now, you want to be a courant in your carpet taste. You want, you have to have a green-Greenery rug. What to do? You come to Rahmanan Antique and Decorative! To find what?
First, a bit of background. Antique Persian carpets are never in this shade or anywhere near it. Natural dyes (a combination of indigo blue and weld yellow, for example), simply cannot produce it. The only antique oriental carpets with truly green fields are either Turkish Oushaks or Art Deco Chinese Tientsin (Tianjin) pieces. In both cases, the green is synthetic, derived from dyes of European origin (likely Swiss or German). Leaving aside the Turkish carpets for another blog, let’s look at a few GREEEEEEN Chinese pieces.
Rahmanan has, by a long margin, the largest selection/collection of room sized antique Art Deco Chinese carpets in the universe. Period. Therefore, it has the biggest and best assortment of GREEN Deco Chinese carpets. We have selected four for closer consideration. Two are border less, two with simple, basically monochrome frames.
Number 20753 (8.10 by 11.3) is a c. 1930 Nichols production with an open green field, complex flower sprays in two opposed corners, and no borders. Even the selvages (edge finishes) are the field tone. Nichols, an American established in Tientsin and selling almost exclusively to the U.S. market in the interwar period, was justly famed for top quality materials and innovative designs. You get a good, big dose of green here.
Rug #20753 Chinese-Art Deco 11’3″ x 8’10”
Another borderless, asymmetrical carpet with a wonderful open green ground close to the 2017 colour pick is Number 22129 (9.10 by 14.4) with an amazing giant peacock in one corner. This is one bird you don’t want to cover with furniture, Art Deco or otherwise. Again, the green is magnificent, rich (but not too rich) and warm.
Rug #22129 Chinese-Art Deco 14’4″ x 9’0″
Two bordered carpets display Chinese objects (porcelain vases, flower pots on stands, hanging lanterns) along with lush sprays and branches of seasonal flowers. Number 22174 (6.0 by 8.10) has a plain peach border and the asymmetrical pattern shows a healthy serving of the right green. Butterflies flit about in addition to the usual Chinese design repertory on Number 22208 (9.2 by 11.6), Again, the green is a delightful background to the just exotic enough décor.
Rug #22174 Chinese-Art Deco 8’10” x 6’0″
Rug #22208 Chinese-Art Deco 11’8″ x 9’0″
So, you don’t have to feel that style is passing you by. Antique Art Deco Chinese carpets (1920-1935) are incredibly chic, and work perfectly with modern, modern and contemporary furnishings. These carpets are available in great condition and the styles have never been duplicated. And when another color is selected, you can rest assured that there are Deco Chinese pieces to match that hue also.
The term Art Deco refers to the style launched at the 1925 Paris World’s Fair Exhibition of Modern and Industrial Decorative Art. Woven between the wars for the Western Market by mostly American owned firms, especially Nichols and Fette, Chinese Art Deco rugs (as the name implies) were made in thick heavy weaves using strong colors, assymetric patterns, and downplaying the Chinese-ness of the carpet.
Nichols rugs are more strong toned than the pastel Fette. In 1924 W. A. B. Nichols introduced the now world renowned “Super Chinese Rug”. These rugs were known in most markets as the most durable and beautiful product of the modern Chinese weavers art. The reason that Nichols Super Rugs may have been so unique to themselves, is that every last part of the process was done by Nichols Company, in house. Most were woven in the coastal port city of Tiensin, though other lesser known workshops were also active.
Helen Fette initially went to China as a missionary, selling small rugs to raise funds for various charities. Teaming up with Chinese rug manufacturer Li Meng Shu to form the Fette-Li Company, the pair started producing rugs out of the Peking area in the early 1920s, becoming one of the largest exporters of the period. Fette rugs usually have a floppy feel because the cotton warps are thinner and more pliable than those used in Nichols carpets, resulting in a soft, limber feel. Many of the designs, over viewed by Fette, were taken from Chinese emroidery, or inspired by traditional Chinese motifs.
Both Fette and Nichols companies used fabric tags on the back of their rugs for identification purposes. Nichols also stamped “handwoven in China by Nichols” onto the backside of the fringe, however if the fringe has worn or been repaired, the mark will be absent. Because Fette and Nichols were so closely associated with the Deco period, rugs woven in their trademark style, without any identifying marks, are routinely referred to as Fette or Nichols style.
Some pieces are ultra-geometric and haute-Deco moderne in character: these are very rare.
More frequent are pieces with bits of Chinese ornament: vases or other precious objects, paeonies, vines, fences, etc.
Most common is the 9’0″ x 12’0″ size, in colors never found in mainstream Chinese rugs: backgrounds in black, mauve, purple, hot pink, orange, olive, employing the best synthetic chrome dyes of the period. Prices are still reasonable and carpets in top condition are available.
to view these rugs on our website, please use the following links:
Archeological excavations have produced rugs from the Han Dynasty China, and carpets have been woven continually in China proper since the Ming Dynasty. Antique carpets available today are principally from three sources.
NingXia, in Western China, wove softly textured, loosely woven pieces with corrosive plain brown outer borders in the early examples, often in large square sizes, with foo dog medallions, cloud wreaths, paeonies, and ornamental patterns of bats or butterflies. Dragon pillar carpets were created especially for monasteries, as were runners in panel designs.
In the later 19th Century, workshops were established in Peking weaving the ever popular blue-and-white color scheme with Chinese motifs including precious objects, complex fretwork, or floral borders and elaborate medallions.
In the 1920s Tientsin on the Pacific Coast wove Art Deco style pieces with strong colors, minimal Chinese elements, and heavy textures. Prices for antique rugs vary immensely.
Production today remains sizeable in China and any size and style may be ordered, including copies of very fine Persian silks.
To view these rugs on our website, please see the following links:
Antique Rug Studio 