There is, unfortunately, no record whether the efforts of Hakluyt and
the merchant adventurers of his time to obtain weavers from Turkey or
Persia were successful. Carpets do not find a place among the goods to
be especially sought after by their agents. As far back as the reign of
Henry VIII we read of Cardinal Wolsey obtaining carpets through the
Venetian Ambassador; and in that reign Richard Sheldon lent his house to
a weaver named Richard Hicks, who produced among other fabrics woven
maps of Worcestershire and Oxfordshire, specimens of which are still in
existence.
In France, Henry IV gave assistance for the manufacture of carpets, and
in 1604 there was a strong guild of carpet weavers; but it was not until
the reign of Louis XIV that the manufacture was revived at Aubusson and
established at Beauvais. The industry had the direct patronage of the
French King, and some celebrated fabrics were made. The Revocation, in
1685, of the Edict of Nantes, which for a time had given protection to
the Protestants of France, drove a large number of French and Walloon
artisans into England and Germany; and the spinning and weaving were
among the many industries in this country to be benefited by this influx
of skilful workers.
In 1701 the carpet weavers of Wilton and Axminster received a charter;
but even at an earlier date the manufacture of carpets had been carried
on at these places. Both these towns have given their names to distinct
fabrics that are now made in many places and countries. Carpet
manufacture is no longer carried on at Axminster, where it flourished
for about a century; and other places, like Fulham, Moorfields, Exeter,
and Frome, where early attempts were made to establish the industry,
have long ceased to have any connection with carpet making.
About the year 1740, the Earl of Pembroke brought over weavers from
France and introduced into Wilton the making of loop-pile or Brussels
carpeting. This was followed in due course by the development of the
cut-pile fabric which took its name from the place.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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