rug
Report a Mistake- Date Made 1900-1981
- Event --
- Affiliation English Canadian
- Artist / Maker / Manufacturer --
- Object Number 81-192
- Place of Origin --
- Category Furnishings
- Sub-category Floor covering
- Department Folklore
- Museum CMH
- Earliest 1900/01/01
- Latest 1981/12/31
- Materials Cotton
- Measurements Length 99.0 cm, Width 88.0 cm
- Caption Horse, Palmerston, Ontario, second quarter of 20th century
- Additional Information Making hooked rugs was part of a system for recovering and making full use of textile fibres in the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century. Hooking was done on burlap reclaimed from flour and grain sacks. Geometric or naturalistic motifs were drawn on the burlap, which was then stretched over a frame. Generally, scraps of old clothing, yarn made from both new and reclaimed wool, or strands of fibre taken from jute sacks were used. These rugs were laid in special areas of the house, where there was less traffic - in front of armchairs and sofas in the parlour, and bedside chests of drawers, desks and beds in bedrooms. It was not until the twentieth century that, under foreign influence, hooked rugs became wall hangings and new fibres were used to make them. A white horse with a black mane and tail is placed against a black background framed with a herringbone pattern in grey, black and burgundy. The linear hooking is exceptionally uniform, making the rug reversible.