The Rug Library

Until the 19th century, 'carpet' could mean any covering, such as a table cover or wall hanging; it came to mean mainly a floor covering after machine-made carpets appeared.

Until the mid-17th century, Asian carpets in Europe were usually too precious for everyday floors and were hung on walls or laid over tables, benches and chests.

Indian carpets traded by Europeans reached the West and East Asia; the Met notes that in Europe and the Far East they were often too precious for the floor and covered furniture or hung on walls.

In the 19th century, prisons in Agra, Benares (Varanasi), Lucknow, Allahabad and other cities were known for carpets and dhurries, which the British used in palaces, offices, hotels and bungalows.

The Girdlers' Carpet was ordered from Lahore by East India Company director Robert Bell as a gift to the Girdlers' Company; it served as a table covering in the company's hall in London.

In Italy, imported carpets were sometimes hung from balconies as festival decorations, and elsewhere in Europe were laid on floors only for church holidays or important visitors.

Safavid manuscript paintings show rulers seated on small, luxurious carpets in outdoor pavilions; court carpets served at outdoor gatherings as well as inside palaces.

In Warangal, geometric carpets and durries, locally called jamkhanas or shatranjis, are traditionally laid out for weddings, ceremonies and to welcome guests at home.

In India, striped dhurries have long served in mosques, as tent rugs, as festival and ceremonial floor coverings, and as everyday household rugs.

Besides floor coverings, carpet-making techniques are also used for decorative wall hangings in a range of natural and synthetic fibres.