William Morris English Arts & Crafts Rug 40224

Antique William Morris English Arts and Crafts Rug, Origin: England, Circa: Turn of the 20th Century – Here is a beautiful and fascinating antique rug – an antique William Morris arts and crafts period carpet, woven in England around the turn of the twentieth century. The Arts and Crafts movement, which peaked between the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, was an international art movement that was something of a reaction to the prevailing aesthetic sensibilities of the time. Due to a marriage of rapid industrialization and the conservative values of the Victorian era, English society suddenly found itself inundated with mass-produced examples of relatively unimaginative art. Certain leading artistic figures began to revolt against this tendency, especially William Morris – the leader of the pre-Raphaelites and the designer of this exemplary Arts and Crafts rug. The idiosyncratic tangle of Celtic knots that serves as the border for this carpet beautifully captures one of the more important trends of the movement – the emphasis of medieval aesthetics, which contrasted especially well with the prevailing contemporary aesthetics.