Note the braided rug in front of the fireplace in the last photo.
In the late 19th Century, hooked rugs gained immense popularity, partly due to a Maine Peddler and rug hooker named Edward Sands Frost, who introduced preprinted hooked-rug patterns on burlap. In 1876, when Frost sold his business, he had about 180 patterns. Frost’s patterns included a wide variety of natural objects along with geometric patterns. As commercial rug designs supplanted traditional hooked rugs, traditional hand rug hooked rugs became valuable antiques, and were the most popular item in Ipswich antiques dealer Ralph Warren Burnham’s shop in Ipswich.
Ralph W. Burnham
Burnham was a collector, dealer, designer and repairer of hooked rugs, and an excellent if eccentric self-promoter. He employed artists to repair and restore antique rugs, as well as to duplicate the older examples. His promotional articles and booklets, were distributed widely, and featuredl mottoes such as “Happy the home all cheery and snug, whose every room is covered with a fine hooked…
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