History of rugs and carpets

When rugs first reached the west they were treated with consummate care and used generally as table coverings (as they are seen sometimes in Holland today).

In paintings of the period they appear frequently in such positions and they must have added a feeling of luxury to the cold and dark rooms.

Cardinal Wolsey, that knowledgeable "picker-up of unconsidered trifles", managed to acquire a large number of valuable carpets, with which to adorn his new Palace of Hampton Court, by "meeting" the Venetian traders as regards the repeal of the duties on wines imported by them into England.

In return for this con­cession seven "handsome Damascene carpets" arrived in 1519 followed by sixty more a year later, so Wolsey did rather well out of that deal.