Rug making in Spain

Area Rugs Contemporary

In the inventory of Princess Juana on her marriage to the Count of Foix in 1392 five carpets made of blue wool with a design of lions, horses and doves are mentioned. In the inventory of Kaiser Karl V are listed carpets from Alcarez and in the records of the Monks of the Escurial allusion is made in 1575 to an Alcarez carpet given to Philip II.

Countess d'Aulnay says that the dais of the throne room in the palace of Charles II was covered with wondrous carpets.

About 1724 carpets in the Turkish style were made in Spain under the direction of Cornelius Vandergoten. Fine specimens are found in the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington.

These are mostly of the seventeenth century, although some belong to the sixteenth. One is knotted of colored wools on woolen warps.

On its deep blue ground are three medallions, every one of which has a well-balanced arrangement of small flowers and leaves on a slender stalk. The border design is formed of vases of flowers and monsters, ending in leaf-like scrolls.

The length is nine feet ten and a half inches by five feet three and a half inches.