Hooked rugs

Accent Rugs

The most famous North American floorcovering is the hooked rug. We like to think that it is our own unique contribution to carpet history.

However, authorities say that there were hooked fabrics made in ancient Egypt, and that a "brodded" rug was made in the English Midlands by pushing short bits of woolen yarn through a coarse fabric. Another theory is that their origin is Scandinavian.

But the hooked rug reached its highest technical and artistic development in this country and can rightly be called American, "Drawn-in rugs," as they were first called, were not made in Colonial times.

At least there are few in existence dating from much before the middle of the nineteenth century. During the Civil War they reached their height of popularity.