America’s Oriental Rug

Karastan Rug Mills introduced machine-made Oriental rugs to America.

Nestled among my stack of rug books is a booklet from the 1933-34 Chicago World’s Fair. It was a promotional piece for Karastan Rug Mills to publicize their entry The “Wonder Rug of America,” a machine-made Oriental reproduction.  I came upon it the other day and as I started flipping the pages, I found myself once again fascinated by the Karastan story. The booklet has wonderful pictures and plenty of information but what struck me was the pride that radiated from the written words.  It was a kind of old time, exuberant pride. Their “Wonder Rug” was a carpet woven unlike any other and produced from an innovative new loom. The fair’s theme was “A Century of Progress.” It was an appropriate arena to showcase their achievement.

The first carpet factory in America dates back to 1791. The Industrial Revolution of the 1800’s ushered in new mechanical and technological inventions for rug weaving. Joseph Jacquard’s loom invention of 1801 was adapted for rug weaving in 1825.

It used a series of punch cards, much like that of a player piano roll, to control the pattern being woven. Capable of incorporating up to six colors in the design, the cards signaled which color yarn to pull to the surface. Unused colors were buried into the foundation of the rug, resulting in a strong, rigid structure.

The Jacquard loom produced a rug face (pile) that looked like a hand made Oriental however the buried yarns created a back side very unlike a handmade rug. Inventors strove to improve on early looms. Steam power arrived in 1839 and wider looms (broadloom) in 1877. In 1928 Eugene Clark, an inventor working with Karastan Rug Mills redesigned one of these early looms and patented a new weaving process capable of pulling pile yarns through the back. The result was a carpet with a soft feel and a hand knotted appearance — both on the front and on the underside.

The design shows clearly on the back of a Karastan carpet, always a good sign on any rug. In addition to replicating the design and texture of a Persian rug, the loom could weave a virtually unlimited variety of colors. Karastan had succeeded in duplicating by machine, with less time and cost, a carpet nearly identical to its handmade inspiration.That was the very feature the Karastan booklet focused on: similarity. The pages show their side-by-side comparison to original Persian carpets. The souvenir booklet was a clever sales tool. It told the story of perseverance and its rewards. It talked of their reproductions, not as something to take the place of an original, but as “faithful duplicates.” The focus was on providing a rug “…Made right here in America…” and “…at a cost well within the means of every homeowner.”

But no words or pictures can take the place of a product’s quality and performance. That must be proved. And it was — by putting the Wonder Rug on display, not for the public to view, but to walk on. To demonstrate the resilience and durability, it was then cleaned on just one side. This new age reproduction, so similar in style and coloring, had passed the ultimate test.  The high quality wool fibers could endure harsh traffic and clean up looking as if no one had ever stepped foot on them. The gimmick was ingenious, so much so that they repeated it again at the 1939-40 New York World’s Fair.

Great works of art will always be imitated.  Reproductions permit those without the desire or means of owning an original to possess something of interest. The real thing, Karastan’s red sarouk is on the left, while a 1930’s red Persian Sarouk is shown on the right.

Today, there are many styles and makers of machine made Orientals and just as many levels of quality.  The same can be said of new hand-knotted rug production. In either case, buyers must arm themselves with a bit of knowledge about what they are purchasing. Mohawk Industries, the second largest carpet and rug makers in the United States, now own Karastan. Seventy-five years after the first Karastan rolled off the loom, the legendary carpet is still in production. The “Antique Legends” line includes some of the first designs Karastan produced in 1928.

We have cleaned thousands of these Karastan carpets over the years and each one produces the same results as the World’s Fair demonstration carpet. The dyes are colorfast and the wool is soft. They clean up 100% beautifully each and every time. These rugs continue to demonstrate their very own centuries of progress.

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