A rare Royal Axminster carpet

Regency period, English, circa 1810 or earlier.

16ft 2in x 9ft 6in   :   488cm x 286cm

Thomas Whitty (1715-1792) started to weave carpets on Midsummers Day 1755 at Axminster, Devon. Working in the Age of Elegance, all the leading architects commissioned carpets from him, notably Adam, Wyatt and Leverton, to furnish the great houses being built.

The present carpet displays a grandeur and elegance of drawing and palette. Whitty was an expert dyer and a keen botanist, which is obvious in his natural reproduction of flowers. The wide border, with scrolling acanthus leaves of French influence, incorporates the emblem of the Prince of Wales, the three feathers, the future George IV of England. There was a carpet of similar unusual colour combination in the Dining Room at the Royal Pavilion in Brighton, the exotic folly created for the Prince Regent. Also at Uppark House, Sussex, in the Red Drawing Room, there is an Axminster carpet with similar border and colouring.

Provenance:

Marie Vergottis (1914-1976), born in Smyrna of Greek parents. In 1938 married George R. Vergottis, a well-known Greek shipowner and philanthropist, and the following year moved to New York into a Fifth Avenue apartment. She was a great collector and her desire to share her passion with others led Marie to donate her collection of porcelain to the George & Marie Vergottis Foundation in Lausanne, together with another foundation in Cephalonia, Greece for promoting study of the arts and awarding scholarship to gifted students.