Woven carpet piece

Art Historical Context

This exquisite woven carpet piece, created around 1885 by an unknown American artist, graces the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Crafted from wool and measuring 35½ x 75⅝ inches (90.2 x 192.1 cm), its elongated form suggests it served as a hallway runner or hearth rug in a late 19th-century American home. Adorned with floral motifs—a tag highlighting its blooming patterns—the carpet captures the era's fondness for nature-inspired designs, evoking the Victorian-era love for ornamentation in domestic textiles. In the context of American decorative arts, this piece reflects the c...