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ORIENTAL RUGWEAVER'S ARTANCIENT ONELoreto Club’s drawing room had the appearance of an oriental bazaar Thursday evening when several dozen beautiful rug products of the oriental countries spread upon the floor, tables and stands created scene of the gaiety and richness oi a market place.With both large and small rugs as example of the eastern art. John Haddad, importer, gave an hour’s talk on oriental rugs for the Catholic Womens league, pointing out just why they are distinctive among the world’s floor-covering products. The art of lug making has been traced back to 2400 B. C., he said, but it is only in the la;?t 600 years that theweavers have been knotting the wool.Showing one after another of thefine pieces, Mr. Haddad remarked that they are made by people who for the most part cannot even write their own names. “The art is handed down from father to son, from mother to daughter, the processes ^o tedious and wearing that if people were to pay for' them in terms of American labor the rugs would be priceless. Whole families spend many years in the making of one rug.”Of prime nece-sity to turn out real oriental rugs arc high quality wool and pure dyes, accordingto Mr. Haddad, and it is these twothings which Europeans and Americans try in vain to copy. “In the first place the finest of sheep arekeep. In Tersia the wool of thesheep is shaded according to thevegetation upon which the flock feeds. In the second place, the dyes are of secret blends and the secrets are guarded with the very lives of the wandering tribes and families. To produce a single color often takes five years, for the yarn ometimcs has to go through twen-vat« before the desired color is achieved.”Among the rugs shown by Mr.Haddad wa*- the Court of Honor.a historic p.eco made for the Shah’s palace in 1798 and numbering 3.500,000 knots in the pattern. It contains the likenesses of every governor in the world from Confucius to Washington.Mr. Haddad explained why aEuropean lt;ffort to duplicate the i oriental rug has failed. “The rugs Iwere made by machine of jute, lt;hrmp and the like instead of the pure woo's and the dyes likewise were infe: lor. Many people, buyingthese rugs for the real product, | wondered why then* rugs wore | «»ut, because they had learnedthat oriental rugs never wear out.!The art of rug-weaving is disappearing in the orient for two icasons, according to the speaker.]h irst, there is a restlessness stir- ;ring the people as a re ult of western influence, and second, Germany and Russia are buying up all the wool they can in the orient, their purpose to make uniformsfor their foldiors. This account*for a scarcity of wool available fori ug making.Each rug tells its own story, Mr. Haddad mentioned, and he related how many of the rugs in the display used a story or a life asa theme.
Newspaper Details
La Crosse Tribune and Leader Press
La Crosse, Wisconsin, US
Fri, Jan 19, 1940
Page 8
Full Page
Clipped by
Gavin S.
NA, 07 Apr 2022
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