In 1721, the Earl of Pembroke, inspired to teach locals in Wilton, England how to weave Brussels carpets, persuaded Savonnerie factory weavers to come to England, and by legend, smuggled them out of France in wine barrels. After Axminster closed in 1835, the Blackmore firm in Wilton acquired their looms in 1836 and began weaving hand-knotted pile carpets in the Axminster style. Blackmore’s successors became the Wilton Royal Carpet Factory and reached notoriety when they displayed Wilton carpets at The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations held in London in 1851 at the Crystal Palace, including five that were commissioned by Queen Victoria for Windsor Castle.
A drawing for a hand-knotted carpet in the collection of the Wilton Royal Carpet Factory from circa 1850, is possibly one of the carpets commissioned by Queen Victoria for Windsor Castle and shares with this carpet a similar exuberance of floral scrolls, mixed flower garlands and acanthus scrolls on a floral-filled ground (see Sherrill, Sarah, Carpets and Rugs of Europe and America, New York, 1996, p. 230, pl. 259).
French taste and art influenced hand woven-carpets made in England from the 18th century well into the 19th century. The carpet offered here displays that influence particularly in the border of stringed jewels, C-scroll cartouches and rose blossom garlands on the field, typically found on both Aubusson and Savonnerie Carpets of the 18th and 19th century.