Mid-20th century Colorful Striped Wool American Rag Rug BB7078 8'6" × 9'2" $5,000

American Rag antique rug having a dense horizontal striped pattern overall in reds, browns, ivory and blues.

American rugs’ designs started off humbly from utterly simple motifs. Antique American rugs consist mostly of geometric and floral patterns yet eventually they have evolved into something much more complex. Designs for American rag area rugs were often inspired by the weaver’s natural environment and represented sea shells, fallen leaves, animals, the family dog, buildings, flowers, baskets, seascapes and landscape vignettes. From the early 1800’s through the middle years of the twentieth century these original compositions gave the vintage area rug makers an opportunity to freely express their creativity.

Initially, the American society was composed of different nationalities, thus their artistic traditions and techniques mixed freely resulting in original creations. In the 1870s, Edward Sands Frost came up with the idea of printing the designs from stencils made of old copper boilers. His idea took the market by storm, however, the mass production initiated the decline in the quality of rugs as well as their popularity. Braided American rugs were just as common and appeared as another way to utilize bits and pieces of textiles.