Q:Our historical society has a woven rug that a visitor told us was a valuable “Brussels carpet.” It’s 70 x 82 inches with a seam down the middle. What can you tell us?
A:A “Brussels carpet” is a patterned carpet made of colored worsted yarns drawn up in loops through a foundation of strong linen thread. It’s named after the capital of Belgium, where this type of carpet was first made in 1799. But widespread production of Brussels carpets didn’t happen until 1849, when the Bigelow Carpet Co. was founded in Clinton, Mass. Erastus Bigelow had already invented a power loom for weaving carpets, and his additional invention of a mechanism to create patterned Brussels carpet is what helped the industry take off. Up to five colors were used in a row, but the way the colors alternated made it look like many more. Brussels carpets were much less expensive than the oriental rugs well-to-do U.S. families were using to cover floors, so the carpets could be found in middle-class as well as upper-class homes.