The best-known and most successful carpet weaving workshops in England were the looms established at Axminster in Devon by Thomas Whitty in 1755. Whitty (1713-1792), a savvy and energetic weaver of cloth, recognized the growing demand for carpets among the aristocracy and wealthy merchant classes during the second half of the eighteenth century. Inspired by popular ‘Turkey carpets’ (a general term for hand-knotted pile carpets, both from the East and West), the self-taught Whitty set out to produce hand-knotted seamless carpets domestically, on a large upright loom. Whitty was the first Englishman to successfully exploit the techniques of pile carpet weaving, creating extremely high-quality carpets at an economically feasible price. Axminster carpets were quickly recognized as the best English carpets available, with Whitty winning the prizes offered for carpet weaving by the Society of Arts in 1757 (shared with Thomas Moore of Moorfields), 1758 (shared with Peter Parisot of Exeter) and 1759 (won by Whitty outright). The fame of Axminster carpets was well appreciated in its era, as evidenced by a Royal visit from George III in 1783, commissions of carpets from the Prince of Wales, as well as commissions from the leading architectural designers of the day, including James Wyatt and Robert Adam.
Whitty was an avid botanist, and his love of flowers is most evident in carpets woven during the later years of his life. This elegant example belongs to a particularly refined group produced during the reign of George III, displaying abundant bouquets of identifiable blossoms, verdant floral swags and scrolls. This carpet shares a number of similarities with other comparable examples, including the ton-sur-ton field design, the individual floral designs, and both the central medallion and the intertwined foliate border surrounding it. The use of ton-sur-ton patterns on Axminster carpets was common during this period, particularly on carpets with a dark brown ground, providing a sense of depth and brightening a solid dark ground. Carpets with similar ton-sur-ton floral patterns include two sold recently from the collection of A. Jerrold Perenchio, Christie’s, New York, 17 September 2020, lot 318 and 7 April 2021, lot 85 ($75,000 and $60,000, respectively). The distinctly-drawn palm bouquets in the corners of the field of the present carpet are identical to those seen on the Perenchio carpet sold in 2021. The sunflower-like central medallion of our carpet is closely related to an ornament on the Temple of Apollo at Palmyra that had been recently published in Robert Wood's enormously influential Ruins of the Temple at Palmyra of 1753. The intertwined continuous vegetation seen around the medallion of our carpet is the prototype of a feature of the best known of all Axminster designs of the eighteenth century; one which, judging from the number of surviving examples, must have been extremely popular. Noted examples include one in the Victoria and Albert Museum (acc. no. T.7-1937), one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (B. Jacobs, Axminster Carpets (Hand-made) 1755-1957, Leigh-on-Sea, 1970, pl.53), one sold anonymously Christie’s, London, 6 July 2000, lot 164 (£300,750) and one originally woven for the Earl of Stradbroke at Heveningham Hall, Suffolk, and subsequently sold from the Perenchio Collection Christie’s, New York, 16 September 2020, lot 62 ($375,000).
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