[Gutenberg 30025] • Rugs: Oriental and Occidental, Antique & Modern / A Handbook for Ready Reference

Excerpt from Rugs, Oriental and Occidental, Antique and Modern: A Handbook for Ready Reference

N the house beautiful, rugs impart richness and represent refinement. Their manufacture was one of the earliest incentives for the blending of colors in such harmony as to please the eye and satisfy the mind; consequently, it is one of the most important of the industrial arts. Since the days when ancient peoples first lay down to sleep wrapped in the skins of animals, the human intelligence has quickened, and as the race has become more civilized, rugs have gradually taken the place of skins. Thus began the industry of rug-weaving, and it has grown to such an extent that it is now of world-wide importance. The word Rug is used in this volume in the follow ing sense A covering for the floor; a mat, usually oblong or square, and woven in one piece. Rugs.