MODERN VS TRADITIONAL CARPETING

THE CONSERVATIVE TASTES OF THE AUSTINS IN A CHANGING WORLD

By the 1930s ideas of modernization had gained acceptance in the minds of some Canadian householders. The pages of Canadian Homes and Gardens during that decade illustrated the tension between the thrill of being up-to-date and the comfort found in embracing the traditional. While Oriental carpets remained as staples in traditional home décor, people with more modern tastes purchased rich monochromatic broadloom, installed wall-to-wall. At that time, improved techniques for keeping households clean allowed homeowners to re-embrace the wall-to-wall carpeting that they had shunned for sanitary reasons several decades earlier.

Despite the trend to modernize, the Austin family continued to add to and maintain their assortment of Oriental rugs in their conservatively furnished home. In the early 1930s they purchased several large carpets and runners second-hand from friends and dealers. Presumably, the movement toward broadloom encouraged the second-hand market in Oriental rugs.

The Spadina drawing room today. Mary Austin purchased the large Oriental carpet in the centre of the room (visible in the lower left hand corner) second-hand in 1934.
(Photograph by Neil Brochu.)

The Austins generally had local rug cleaning and repair specialists attend to their carpets. Some rugs had simple alterations, such as repairs to rips or fringes. Others required patches or reinforcing with glued burlap, visible today on the underside of this Caucasian Carpet from c.1900.
( 1982.7.1008; City of Toronto Collection.)

Explore Romance Underfoot :

• Oriental Rugs in Toronto, 1880-1940
• The Austins at Spadina
• Decorating Trends, 1880s-90s
• Turn-of-the-Century Refinement
• Competitors in the Carpet Trade
• Modern vs Traditional Carpeting
• Final Thoughts
• Visit Spadina

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