Illustration: Carpet design by Woodward, Palmer & Radford, 1867.
At the 1867 Paris Exhibition a number of British companies were represented, including those dedicated to the textile arts. The carpet manufacturing industry of Kidderminster was well placed and was to win a number of gold, silver and bronze medals for their design work.
Carpets had been manufactured at Kidderminster since 1735, but the area had a long history of textile manufacturing before that date, and was producing manufactured textile products as far back as the medieval era. As far as carpet manufacturing was concerned, Kidderminster was to become one of the leading areas of Britain in modern production throughout the eighteenth, nineteenth and up to the middle of the twentieth century. So much so that over this long time period upwards of fifty companies were trading in the town.
Illustration: Carpet design by Woodward, Palmer & Radford, 1867.
Foreign exports became important to the industry, which is why it was so well represented at the 1867 exhibition. Kidderminster had been represented sixteen years earlier at the 1851 Great Exhibition in London. However, carpet manufacturers had felt keenly, as had other British manufacturers, the criticism of the standard of output by British companies. By 1867, a series of innovations had been taken in order to counter this largely justified criticism, including the establishment of a School of Art in the town, which was meant to function as a conduit bringing new, fresh and more importantly qualified design talent into the carpet industry.
Although by no means free of criticism in 1867, the industry had gone a long way in restructuring and redirecting the manufacture of carpets for both the home and world markets. One of the main instigators of change was the commissioning of work by such leading designers and critics of the mid-nineteenth century as Owen Jones and Matthew Digby Wyatt, as well as a new crop of local design talent such as J K Harvey, Owen Maylott, Jean Bouet and others.
Illustration: Carpet design by J K Harvey for James Morton & Sons, 1867.
All four of the carpet designs shown here derive from the catalogue from the 1867 exhibition. Two were produced by James Morton & Sons and two by Woodward, Palmer & Radford. Those produced by James Morton & Co were designed by J K Harvey, and in fact all of the carpets displayed specifically at the exhibition by this company were designed by Harvey.
The fact that Kidderminster manufacturers were able to procure gold, silver and bronze medals for design and decorative work should be seen as credit to those companies. French exhibition judges were often reluctant at best, to award medals to non-French companies. It should also be pointed out that Kidderminster companies by showing their work in Paris, were competing in a country which at the time was considered to be not only at the centre of a long and illustrious history of carpet manufacturing, but also at the centre of a sophisticated contemporary market that supplied much of Europe and the world with the highest quality of carpet manufacturing then known. Britain, on the other hand, was often seen and more importantly portrayed, as a bulk manufacturer of carpets, with little in the way of finesse and style. In other words, the general thinking was that British companies tended towards quantity over quality.
Illustration: Carpet design by J K Harvey for James Morton & Sons, 1867.
However, Kidderminster, along with other carpet manufacturing areas of Britain and Ireland, was to change the face not only of carpet production and design in Britain, but also of the perception of that design.
Although much of the industry can no longer be seen in Kidderminster, the history of this industry and its connection with the town will always be available. A good online source for the unique experience of Kidderminster can be found at the Carpet Museum. It is a good starting point for anyone interested in the history of the carpet industry set in the heart of England. The link can be found below in the Reference links section along with a number of books dealing with the Kidderminster carpet industry all of which are readily available on Amazon and have links to that site.
Further reading links:
Kidderminster Carpet Museum
Woven in Kidderminster: An Illustrated History of the Carpet Industry in the Kidderminster Area 1735 to 2000
Carpet Weavers and Carpet Masters: The Handloom Carpet Industry of Kidderminster, 1780-1850 (Local history publications)
A History Of Kidderminster
The Carpet weaver's lament: Songs and ballads of Kidderminster in the Industrial Revolution
Carpets and textiles: A complete list of the special collection in Kidderminster Library
Reports On the Paris Universal Exhibition, 1867. Vol.2-6 [And] Index To, Volume 3
Reports On the Paris Universal Exhibition, 1867. Vol.2-6 [And] Index To, Volume 5
Reports of Artisans Selected by a Committee Appointed by the Council of the Society of Arts to Visit the Paris Universal Exhibition, 1867
Recollections Of The Paris Exhibition Of 1867 (1868)
List Of The Objects Obtained During The Paris Exhibition Of 1867 By Gift, Loan, Or Purchase And Now Exhibited In The South Kensington Museum
