Paul McGhee
April 14th, 2015, 04:49 PM
I recently visited Blickling Hall (c1620) in Norfolk, England, which is now managed by the National Trust and learned an interesting thing about their approach to rugs.
Many of the stately homes owned by the National Trust have large rooms furnished with British Axminster carpets, either in "English" designs or reproductions of "Oriental" ones, but sometimes one sees nice Persian and Turkoman rugs as well. Usually the public are kept away from them behind roped-off areas.
However, at Blickling, one room had a nice Tabriz rug which was open to be walked on and, when I enquired about it, the attendant said "Ah yes, we call that a sacrificial rug." He explained that the Trust had a stock of old rugs which were not of museum quality but were nice enough to use as furnishings. They use them now because tourists are no longer quite so happy as previously about not being allowed into the rooms properly.
There is an online catalogue of the rug inventory of the National Trust, but its not clear if these are "proper antique" and "sacrificial" www.nationaltrustcol lections.org.uk
Many of the stately homes owned by the National Trust have large rooms furnished with British Axminster carpets, either in "English" designs or reproductions of "Oriental" ones, but sometimes one sees nice Persian and Turkoman rugs as well. Usually the public are kept away from them behind roped-off areas.
However, at Blickling, one room had a nice Tabriz rug which was open to be walked on and, when I enquired about it, the attendant said "Ah yes, we call that a sacrificial rug." He explained that the Trust had a stock of old rugs which were not of museum quality but were nice enough to use as furnishings. They use them now because tourists are no longer quite so happy as previously about not being allowed into the rooms properly.
There is an online catalogue of the rug inventory of the National Trust, but its not clear if these are "proper antique" and "sacrificial" www.nationaltrustcol lections.org.uk