oriental area rugs
This town was named Axminster. So here in this remote village is the origin of the name we associate today with one of our best and most popular machine-made floorcoverings.
All of Thomas Witty's rugs were made by hand. His output was small, mostly to fill special orders of the rich nobility. Other little factories sprang up, and a limited but very distinguished group of English carpets was made in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
Meanwhile the ladies at home were patiently stitching their charming embroidered rugs.
These were made on a strong coarse foundation fabric, and worked with heavy woolen yarn in what was called "tent-stitch"—like gros point or cross-stitch.
Some times the embroidery was so firm and fine there were as many as twenty stitches in one linear inch.
