Antique Savonnerie Carpet BB2599

An artistic French Savonnerie carpet, the black field having a pastel curvilinear design of delicate floral motifs and architectural leafy vines around a small flowerhead framed by an architectural inner frame within a thin solid outer blue stripe.

Many weavers who settled in France were Huguenots who had fled Spain during the Inquisition in the early sixteenth century. By issuing the edict of Nantes, Henry IV granted all non-Catholics freedom of worship, the re by protecting the antique carpet weavers in Aubusson. Aubusson weavers became the finest craftsmen in the world. Louis XIV’s influential Prime Minister Colbert established the long and hard apprenticeship necessary to obtain the title “Master of Tapestry”.

Even today, the center in Aubusson, under control of the French Ministry of Arts, is busily producing oldest European carpet and rugs of the most exquisite quality. Antique Savonnerie and Aubusson rugs and carpetsare considered to be among the finest examples of carpet production undertaken in Europe over the past 350 years.