Rug, Shag

Description

Multi-colored strips of printed cotton material, approximately 5" x 1/2". Strips knotted in half with the ends sticking up and sewn into the woolen base. Two rows of similarly attached black rags form the outside border, which measures 2" wide. Backing of heavy mattress ticking.

Notes

The Shakers wove shag rugs beginning in the late 19th century. This rug was woven by Jennie Wells (1878-1956) in the 1940s. Wells joined the Shakers in a Groveland, New York community, but then moved to Watervliet, to Mount Lebanon, and finally to Hancock, where she died. She made this rug while a member of the North Family at Mount Lebanon. A film in the collection of the New York State Museum in Albany shows Wells weaving either this rug or one similar to it. To make a shag rug, a woman pulls and knots strips of linen into a crochet or knit backing. The strip is knotted in the middle and both ends of the strip help form the mosaic of color and texture of the rug. Borders are a common feature of Shaker rugs; they provided order and contained the randomness of the multi-colored shag rugs. The black rag border of this rug acts like a frame by enhancing the colors and variety of the interior, and creates a sharp border between the colors and the floor. At the same time the border is united with the interior through its texture, for the black strips are the same length and density as the colored rags. The rags used in this rug were machine-woven and printed with synthetic dyes in non-Shaker factories. By the turn of the 20th century, the Shakers were buying virtually all of their textiles for clothing and other articles from the World.