Rug Art-RESCUED FROM OBLIVION is a delightful tale of discovery, but a sad reflection on the lack of preservation of North America's most endangered art form that has literally and figuratively been "tramped on" for much too long. Abandoned for more than half a century in the basement of a damp and mould filled former New Glasgow, Nova Scotia rug pattern factory, a determined research team found amazing pen and ink rug art created by an artist who is said to have studied in the same New York art class with noted folk artist Norman Rockwell. Under a leaking sewage pipe in that same factory they unearthed amazing hand cut Mystery stencils that are now rewriting the arts heritage . Their discovery heralds the oldest known commercial designs recovered in Canada, and possibly in North America and a unique pattern printing system hitherto unknown. The searchers found, and rescued from imminent oblivion some 550 pieces of original pen and ink art created by the 1892 factory founder John Garrett and his son Frank. In acquiring remnants of the oldest known rug pattern factory in the world (1892) they also unearthed three unique hand-carved full size rug pattern blocks and a mass of records of early pattern designs from across North America. An intriguing bonus was the salvaging of some 300 hand cut stencils created by a talented unknown artist. Measuring only 3x5" in size-each contained two rug pattern designs. Designated the MYSTERY PATTERNS preliminary research indicates they are the oldest Canadian rug designs ever discovered and possibly the oldest in the world.
Rug Art - Rescued From Oblivion
A Hooked Rug Museum of North America Research projectBy Suzanne Conrod Hugh ConrodAuthorHouse
Copyright © 2010 Suzanne and Hugh Conrod
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4520-0237-8 Contents
Foreword.....................................ixPrologue.....................................xiiiChapter 1....................................1Chapter 2....................................21Chapter 3....................................39Chapter 4....................................67Chapter 5....................................103Chapter 6....................................119Chapter 7....................................135Chapter 8....................................155Chapter 9....................................165Garrett Family Genealogy.....................185Index........................................195
Chapter One
Rescued from Oblivion
"In those days our great-grandmothers were greatly handicapped by lack of proper materials. Her first move was to get an oat bag or potato sack, cut it open and sew it on a frame. Then came the design. If she wanted a strictly geometrical pattern, she often used small plates and butter chips and even bricks by laying them on the burlap and tracing around them" (The New Glasgow Evening News 1934)
The Drama of Discovery
A '"bit of antiquing" unexpectedly evolved into an exciting and hazardous adventure that crisp 2004 Fall day in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia.
It all transpired in a century old basement infused with the grime, dust, cobwebs and mould accumulated from a long forgotten past. Unknown to us two retirees starting out on a romantic wedding anniversary trip it would be the curtain raiser to a project that would consume the rest of our lives.
Garrett's By-the-Bridge Antiques is a rambling frame structure- a combination of two 19th century buildings which were later joined in the middle for expansion of a once booming international rug pattern factory. Its location was near the centre of a historic industrial area with strong Scottish overtones.
The shop's current owner-manager Edward "Eddy" MacArthur purchased the property and remnants of stock and equipment left in the former John E. Garrett (1892) Rug Pattern Factory during the mid 1970's when Cameron Garrett (the last of the Garrett dynasty of rug pattern manufacturers) decided to wind down the business. Eddy also happened to be the last working manager of that old factory.
We found the antique emporium's stock that day to be a mixture of new and old. A few faded old hooked rugs were displayed on the floor but it was a unique cylinder type of rug hooking device nestled in a showcase that caught our eye upon entry. Overall the scene was a conglomeration of old pictures, books, antique furniture and stacks of early phonograph records-seemingly out of place amongst the gleaming Paderno stainless steel cookware, utensils and sparking new guitars with which they shared shelf space.
The genial owner was on his way to make his bank deposit but paused to greet us and enquire about our wants. Having researched the early beginnings of this antique emporium before starting our holiday excursion we had knowingly targeted this particular shop in our challenging search for more artifacts and archival materials to add to a growing personal collection of heritage rug hooking items being assembled by Suzanne.
When Eddy stepped forward to offer aid, our first question was whether any vestiges of the old Garrett factory still remained after the closure of the plant some 30 years earlier. He pointed to the rugs we had spotted earlier and noted that one was an image of the last pattern ever designed and manufactured in the old factory. He explained that the cylindrical device in the showcase was an experimental rug hook designed in the early 1920's at another old New Glasgow firm of Steeves and Sutherland. It took little consideration for us to quickly add these two rare items to our artifact collection.
Our still unanswered enquiry begged a more complete answer. "Is there anything left of the old factory?" we asked.
Eddy's reply-"I haven't been down in the basement in the last five years, but there's still some equipment and odds and ends there!"
This unexpected response, coming after the factory's closure more than a quarter century ago gave us a shiver of anticipation.
A disappointing minute followed when we asked if we could visit the basement and its owner explained that it was a damp and hazardous area with minimal lighting and treacherous access stairs. Crippled himself by an earlier illness that limited use of one of his legs, it was obvious and understandable why Eddy was reluctant to venture into such conditions.
Sensing our disappointment and contemplating our offer to acquire a flashlight to augment the search, Mr. Mac Arthur agreed that if we returned later in the morning he would try to take us into the basement.
It turned out to be a difficult climb for both us seniors and the owner as we cautiously ventured down a narrow and near vertical stairway which opened into a seemingly endless maze of beams, nooks and crannies, with its darkened twists and turns. The cavernous basement was liberally decorated with cobwebs. The blackened walls wore a cloak of grime and probably splattered printer's ink.
Dripping water pipes, pools of leaking water and rotting cardboard cartons flirted with each other amidst the musty smells and creeping mould prevalent in damp areas. Piles of burlap once the key for rug pattern making lay crumpled near a home made metal trough, at one time a system for washing surplus ink from paper stencils utilized to reproduce Garrett rug designs.
No Hollywood horror movie could have more dramatically replicated this inhibiting scene. It was a panorama of which nightmares are made. Flashes of dusty old equipment, a stack of water-soaked stencils, abandoned tools and a tray of varnished rug hook handles gleamed between a veil of cobwebs, all appearing in flickering glimpses under the prying beam of our new flashlight.
There was only minimal electric power supply to the basement, some not functioning. Awareness that electricity and water do not make comfortable partners did little to calm our nerves. A bare overhead bulb provided light for the stairwell but most others had long since expired. One of them did cast a pale aura on a distant corner.
Eddy indicated an old table lamp nearby and with his help Suzanne connected it to a seemingly endless stretch of aged extension cords to provide a fraction more illumination. It was a single-file parade led by Eddy, followed by Suzanne "the lady of the lamp" and tailed by myself (Hugh) with my flashlight and a digital camera, itching for action. Each of us constantly brushing aside the cobwebs, pondering the dubious friendliness of the creepy crawlies that created them, and all the while peering excitedly into each box and container we passed. We intently scanned each blackened corner for rug hooking history as we carefully edged forward on the broken concrete that still clung to survival on an uneven floor.
From time to time Eddy would point out an item of abandoned old factory equipment, -there, he explained, was the tumbler once used to polish the metal components of rug hooks, nearby, the unusual upright lathe used to fashion them, over here a tool rack with implements still projecting from their appointed slots despite rust and an inch of accumulated grime. Even the old pattern table remained intact a crude but effective platform of ink-blackened two by fours covered with planks and topped with a smooth 8x10 sheet of some early form of plaster board. Rusted cans with peeling labels still sheltered remnants of abandoned printers ink.
Despite the seeming threats to personal safety it was for us a heart pounding introduction to early rug hooking history and a lost heritage which at the outset we had not contemplated finding and even then had difficulty comprehending. It was truly a trip back a century, a veritable time capsule of hooked rug heritage.
Overcome by the enormity of what was unfolding before our eyes we collected what small treasures and samples we could easily transport to the upper levels where they could be assessed and hopefully acquired. Green garbage bags were stuffed with what was immediately at hand, samples from this carton and that, bits of old mechanical rug hooks, a few copies from an abandoned and water damaged stack of brochures, along with rolls of white and black paper with water-glued ends that had no apparent objective but to challenge our curiosity.
A few discarded old Garrett burlap patterns, badly damaged by poor inking and later used as clean-up rags, were salvaged from one corner. In retrospect that first somewhat nerve racking and tenuous visit to the factory basement hardly even scratched the surface of what future, less emotional and more studied searches would unfold to our little research team.
With clothes well blackened with a generous portion of the accumulated grime of more than a quarter century, our faces smeared like a swat team from the constant wiping away of dangling cobwebs and imagined lurking spiders and still highly cautious of the electrical hazards in the water damaged sections of the basement we decided to call it a day and regrouped on the main floor to assess what initial discoveries we had made.
Later that evening, after shedding our work clothes and savoring an urgent shower at a local motel we again examined our finds, lamented our premature departure from the basement and realized that we had only opened a crack in the door of an important gateway to rug hooking history. It was obvious that what we had found must be preserved for future generations.
After a somewhat sleepless night and the realization that unexplored treasures still beckoned discovery we returned to the site the following morning. It was to be the first of many follow up visits we were to make over the next year. To his credit Eddy always welcomed us with a helping hand.
Eventually this persistent searching would lead us to acquire all the remaining factory mechanical equipment in that basement, plus many archival treasures from a century past, which somehow had miraculously survived the ravages of a fire, water leaks, itinerant "pickers", mould, rot and ultimate disintegration. We saved what we could salvage, and were dismayed by what we realized had been lost!
We were definitely not the first, and probably not the last to explore that old factory basement. We learned of Museum experts and researchers, commercial entrepreneurs and antique dealers from Nova Scotia and elsewhere who had visited, investigated, and acquired items. We have found traces of acquired relics as far away as Quebec and as near as Middleton, Canning and Pictou. All collectors, we later learned had missed the true significance and the most important items of a rug art heritage that was in extreme jeopardy of total loss.
Five years before our visit we were told a Pictou County commercial entrepreneur had made repeated visits to the same basement and acquired hundreds of old factory-perforated stencils. Many years later after learning of the heritage treasures she had bypassed in her explorations she threatened to sue us for our finds. The legal fees we paid to defend our acquisitions against her invalidated claims, have never been reimbursed to this date.
A commercial antique dealer who also intruded uninvited into the basement during one of our searches had to be ordered to leave by the owner when he trespassed into the hazardous area where we were working. Volunteering can be a noble endeavor but saving history in the public interest can have unhappy obstacles and obvious frustrations that the serious researcher must impatiently suffer for history's sake.
The factory building itself is only a vigorous walk away from a major Industrial Museum created by the Province of Nova Scotia some years ago. A community oriented historical house operated by the Pictou County Historical Society along with John Garrett's original New Glasgow home also still survive nearby. The latter hosted our first major exhibit with joy that the Garrett dynasty had finally been honored.
The 1892 Garrett factory itself was certainly no secret to anyone but none of its explorers had been able to discover the mysteries it contained since most such prizes had been lost or forgotten in the obscurity of the passing years. They had also been well guarded by intimidating cobwebs and mould.
Some five cases of documents from that same factory we later discovered are now safely preserved in Ottawa in the vaults of the Museum of Civilization of Canada. How they reached there we are still uncertain. We also learned of several Annapolis Valley collectors and one from Pictou County who had much earlier than us explored that forbidding basement and acquired hundreds of the old perforated working stencils that were scattered throughout. Lacking secure heritage protection several hundred of these old stencils we discovered had been ultimately destroyed by a fire after removal from the factory. Such is the fragility of history abandoned to an unknown fate.
One piece of factory equipment a perforating device to permit the passage of ink through those old paper stencils had actually been purchased by a commercial entrepreneur but had been abandoned intact in the basement for over five years before it was finally removed. It was our research team that drew to her attention its possible loss by water damage, fire or theft.
Fire in fact was no stranger to the old factory building having already seared one section in a previous near disaster. That blaze consumed a section of the building where teams of rug pattern colorists once worked. It has been with great difficulty that we have struggled to reconstruct this interesting phase of the factory operation and succeeded in identifying a small number of the women who labored there over the years by carefully reconstructing and analyzing old records and work sheets.
The Real Garrett Treasures Unfold
Had it not been for stubborn persistence in continuing our research in that abandoned basement the most significant discovery in North American rug hooking history may well have been lost to posterity, this time not by fire damage or negligence but as a victim of water and mould.
Our search for artifacts of rug hooking in that unsavory old basement was made difficult by mountains of boxes and materials of unrelated materials reflecting the later use of the building as an antique emporium. Cast iron pots and frying pans, parts of abandoned spinning wheels, stacks of old records, books and magazines, debris of 100 years were stacked high and interspersed with the rug factory artifacts.
Our detailed search continued for a considerable period and it led us from one grimy point to another, usually without avail. Finally, as our patience wore thin, and with little stomach for our frustrating probing into soggy cartons of musty papers we made the first amazing discovery. One eventful day we found at the base of a foundation support beam, near a leaking water pipe, a large box of factory documents. At first examination it appeared to contain only old records, tally sheets and files of images from old magazines used by the pattern designers as references for their drawings. All of great value for archival preservation-but only a scratch on the surface of what was still to come.
Seemingly reluctant, the box gradually disclosed its real treasure.
Slowly unveiled to us were stacks of loosely assembled original pen and ink sketches which were immediately recognizable as early designs for hooked rugs as each precious piece emerged one by one from the box.
Neither the discovery of a long lost Egyptian tomb nor the treasures of King Tut could have been more rewarding. It was a gift from the past, a visual feast for the eyes and inspiration for the rug hooking soul.
Those hundreds of tiny pieces of original pen and ink drawings had survived for more than a century, had surmounted the insidious attacks of dampness, leaking water, creeping mould and insects and were laid before us like a gourmet smorgasbord.
John and Frank Garrett had opened their Pandora's box of art to feast our eyes. Had there ever been a moment like this in rug hooking history?
Each delicately drawn image was little more than 4x6 inches in size, sometimes smaller. We had seen printed reproductions of many of them in our earliest research such as were contained in the old brochures that the Garretts published annually. This however was the original pen and ink artwork. We were celebrating an exquisite treasure.
Nothing could diminish the mutual excitement we all shared at that moment as each delicate piece of art was removed and examined. More than 300 immaculate images from yesteryear were rug hooking history's reward that day. The past was speaking to us through the creativity of two early Canadian rug designers John and Frank Garrett.
Although strangers to us, John and Frank must also have shared that moment in time with as we were suddenly united by the twists and turns of fate and through passing generations to each other by their beautiful art.
A fleeting moment in time - we paused, melded together despite the cobwebs dangling between us. Ghostly shadows in the dark recesses of the factory the Garretts of yesterday may have been, but in that historic moment they must have smiled at the knowledge that their work would live on for the joy and benefit of future generations. Even more surprising discoveries were to be made but certainly none to rival this first historic moment.
The Last Momentous Find
Our next discoveries, a double-header, were to be made under considerably better illumination in that same factory basement. We had returned again to complete the search and Eddy MacArthur had upgraded the electrical system since our last visit.
The painstaking research described during previous visits had virtually left no water soaked cartons unturned and on this occasion we were in active negotiation for the purchase of all the remaining manufacturing equipment used by the Garretts in producing patterns for their customers.
Rug hooking history sadly lacks the preservation of such major components of its early heritage as no publicly owned Museum or Gallery of Rug Hooking has ever existed in North America to pursue and preserve such major acquisitions.
The emergence of a basically intact century old hooked rug pattern factory and most of its historic records was certainly a prize for historians of rug making that simply could not be ignored. Lacking public funding we burrowed into our retirement pension funds to acquire what we could and added this major acquisition to the growing collections we already had in storage.
We were amazed that such a treasury of artifacts still existed after so many years. We give enormous credit to Eddy MacArthur's generous help and his appreciation of what we were struggling to achieve, since without his aid and consideration such would probably have been lost to posterity.
Antiquated, mostly home-made, rusty, dirty and decrepit the tired old factory equipment was viewed by the researchers as a dramatic physical look back into the past of an international rug hooking story which has long been ignored by the great museums and art galleries of the world.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Rug Art - Rescued From Oblivionby Suzanne Conrod Hugh Conrod Copyright © 2010 by Suzanne and Hugh Conrod. Excerpted by permission.
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