Craigie Stockwell's specialist service in copying old carpets
The recreation or copying of old, antique and historic European carpets and rugs has always been a speciality of Craigie Stockwell.
We are often approached to copy, or recreate, old carpets that have seen better days, and sometimes, simply because the original had vanished or been destroyed.
There is also a substantial need to have modern pieces in Embassies and 'living museums' where the rugs are subjected to considerable amounts of traffic.
There is a great amount of work involved in this field and especially for our specialist designers, however it is very rewarding and we take pride in the quality of the artwork and authenticity that we can achieve.
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A selection from a number of projects we have worked on, in this area, are mentioned below:
17 Hill Street
The records for this Robert Adam designed London Townhouse were found in the Sir John Soane museum, who kindly gave us permission to research the original designs and colours for this beautiful building.
Particular attention was paid to the colour selection where it was decided that the original Adam colour palatte was too strong for contemporary tastes, so softer colours were selected.
Trinity House Courtroom
Trinity House was responsible for mainaining all the light ships and light houses around the British coast. Our designer, Francis Milward, had worked on this project when he was the senior designer for the last hand knotting carpet factory in the United Kingdom, so he was familiar with the design.
Chatsworth House
We were asked to recreate this beautiful Savonnerie carpet for this famous stately home and worked colosely with Her Grace, The uchess of Devonshire on the project, with Rob Holmes and Rae Riley tracing off the design of the original Derbyshire. We made the replacement carpet by using a colour palette between the very bright original (found at the base of the tufts and in the knots) and a modern day soft one. There are nearly seventy colours in the carpet.
The Music Room at The Royal Pavillion in Brighton
Working with the experts and conservationists at this important historic building created by George IV, when he was Prince Regent, a fragment of the original carpet was borrowed from the Victoria and Albert museum: Queen Victoria had found the original blue carpet 'decadent', so had asked for it to be bleached into a mid beige tone and then chopped it up for use in a guest room at Buckingham Palace!
There was one missing motif of a 'wonderful creature', which our designer, Rob, recreated from sketches and historic documents.
Tilly Losch's footprints at West Deane
Edward James was obviously a great and gifted man, with considerable wealth at his disposal: stories that he always travelled without money. He was one of the first patrons of Salvador Dali and gave a 'surreal' feel to parts of this house.
His marriage to Tilly Losch was not very sucessful. Tilly Losch was a talented singer/dancer and eventually a very accomplished artist, but she did not allow the marriage to be consumated amd it only lassted six months.
Her footprints running between the bathroom and bedroom at West Deane were possibly running away from Mr James?
The Savoy Theatre
When we were asked to consult on this refurbishment of the famous art deco theatre next to the Savoy, we noticed that a carpet had been proposed that was totally unsuitable, so we researched the original specification and this was of a very fine worsted woven Wilton carpet with 156 tufts to the square inch, giving a high level of definition. Even then, some one tried to confuse the architects by offering a 'double lift' cloth which, although having 144 tufts, these were put in two at a time and would give a very coarse interpretation of the design. Caveat Emptor!
The Oliver Messel and Penthouse Suites at The Dorchester Hotel
Coincidentally, the original carpets for these suites at The Dorchester were supplied by SJ Stockwell & Co (Carpets) Limited (1953 photograph above), and we found the original material in a warehouse in the City of London, so we were able to trace them off accurately and supply perfect copies for the re-opening of the hotel after it was purchased by the Brunei Royal Family.
The British Embassy in Paris
Lancaster House
The Governor's Mansion in Salt Lake Cty, Utah
The Governor's Mansion in Puerto Rico
Shuttleworth Trust
Culzean Castle Saloon
Anglesey Abbey
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