Large rug hunting

The details in the design of this rug are amazing and well worth a closer look. They include huntsmen on horseback, wild boar, deer and hounds. It was called ‘The Hunting Rug’ by its manufacturers, Quayle and Tranter of Kidderminster. Designed by George Bain the rugs sold very well. 

In the late 1940s George Bain was approached by the carpet maker Quayle & Tranter Limited to provide some Celtic designs suitable for rugs. This became a very productive collaboration. Bain was soon taken on as a consultant as well as designer. Not all of the designs that he provided were actually put into production. However, the rug shown here is the most successful of those that were. 

Initially, in March 1948, Bain delivered the hunting design for a rug 6 feet by 3 feet in size (around 1.8m by 0.9m). Later that year he supplied a second design for increasing the size of the rug to 12 by 9 feet (around 3.65m by 2.75m), the one shown here. He used the same motifs but cleverly incorporated more of them into a very pleasing, balanced and more symmetrical design. 

There are rugs of both sizes and two different colourways in the Collection.

See Tattersall CEC 1966 A History of British Carpets, from the introduction of the craft until the present day