During the reign of Louis XV (1715-1774), aristocratic interiors embraced comfort and intimacy creating an increased demand for floor carpets (Sherrill, Sarah B., Carpets and Rugs of Europe and America, New York, 1996, p. 98). Because the well-established Savonnerie workshop exclusively provided carpets for the use of the king, other manufactories of carpets were established to match the need: Beauvais, Tournai and more famously, Aubusson.
When government officials searched France for new carpet producing centers to improve local economies in the 1740s, Aubusson was a natural selection. Flatwoven tapestries had been woven in Aubusson for close to 300 years at that point and there was a community of able-bodied women and girls looking for jobs to escape poverty. Unlike the Savonnerie with a single workshop, Aubusson was comprised of several private ateliers with a master weaver who hired their own weavers; collectively these workshops were called manufacture. The industry at Aubusson was under royal protection and in the early years subsidized by the government, but never owned by the government like the Savonnerie (S. Sherrill, p. 99).
The workshop at Aubusson wove its first pile carpet in 1743 and quickly established itself as an alternative to the Savonnerie and enjoyed royal patronage. As early as 1748, Louis XV and his mistress Madame de Pompadour ordered Aubusson carpets but his successors Louis XVI and Napoleon I were even more active patrons. A 1786 inventory of the royal apartments of Versailles lists more than a hundred Aubusson carpets (S. Sherrill,p. 103). By 1756, the Aubusson workshops were selling to a number of countries including Spain, the Netherlands and America, while their French clients included various members of the court.
At first, the designs of Aubusson pile carpets imitated Persian and Turkish carpets, but by the late 1740s and early 1750s, they began weaving carpets in the rococo style that dominated all of the French arts. These rapidly found a market as their designs were similar to those at the royal Savonnerie factory, and although not quite as fine, they were considerably cheaper. The design of this carpet exhibits features favored by Louis XVI’s queen Marie-Antoinette, particularly the lush floral garlands, the decorative urns in each corner and rose Moresque medallion. Although the conceit of the carpet is based on Louis XV designs, the drawing is more open and delicate than its prototype.
An Aubusson pile carpet in the James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire shares a similar elegant treatment of the loose garlands (see P. Verlet, The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor, The Savonnerie, London, 1982, p. 363, fig. 224, Cat. No. 20). The border of this carpet, composed of linked leaves enclosing realistic rose blossoms, is strikingly similar to the border that encircles the central medallion of the Waddesdon carpet. The border of the Waddesdon carpet is now missing but one can wonder if it was a repeat of the inner border similar to this carpet. Another Louis XVI Aubusson pile carpet that displays similar open treatment of the floral garlands and field motifs as the present carpet was sold at Christie’s, London, 14 December 2006, lot 29. A transitional Louis XV/XVI Aubusson pile carpet that also features decorative urns was sold Christie’s, New York, 21 October 2004, lot 1002.
The structure of the present carpet is typical for 18th Aubusson pile weavings. The warps are only partly depressed with a flat back, unlike the full depression seen in the products of the Savonnerie, and there is no colored "dizaine" warp. ‘Dizaine’ is a term that signifies the technique where every tenth pair of warps are dyed in a dark color and were used as a guide for the weaver following a pattern to prevent distortion of the design.