Rug and floorcovering fashion

Fifteen years later the smart matrons refurnished with massive mission pieces. Draperies were striped, upholstery was leather, and the tan-taupe-brown family with burnt orange and blue were the colors.

Another fifteen years brought us to the rust and green over­stuffed era. Concurrent with these fashions, and to a certain extent regional, were the early English oak dining room sets with Elizabethan bulges, the Spanish and Monterey pieces and the varnished walnut with carving that was glued on.

Floorcovering fashions changed in about 1900 from patterned wall-to-wall carpet to real Oriental rugs and machine-made "art squares" with Turkish and Persian motifs.

The terrible taupe era came in and lasted for more than ten long years. There were Chinese rugs and domestic adaptations of them, Spanish and Jacobean patterns. In the late twenties, one large store carried no less than a hundred thousand dollars' worth of Spanish hand-tufted rugs in stock.

Plain carpet became widespread about 1925. Plum, dark blue and burgundy superseded taupe.