European carpets like this English example sometimes tread the line between western and Oriental design. This allover reciprocal pattern of four-armed rosettes inscribed within circles looks vaguely Middle Eastern, but such patterns had long become familiar in European carpet and textile production. There is, in fact a venerable English tradition behind the absorption and adaptation of Oriental designs like this. Already in the sixteenth century, if not earlier, English workshops were producing local copies of the so-called “Small Pattern Holbein” carpets, also reciprocal allover designs. In many ways the present example simply substitutes later, more florid design elements in place of the geometric strap work roundels of the Holbein type. This suggests that nineteenth century English carpets are the final stage of a very long and creative relationship with oriental textile art.
