Book, Design for a Carpet

In the 1920s, Marion Dorn Kauffer was dubbed “The Architect of Floors” in praise for her influential modern carpet designs. Dorn, an American working in England until the outbreak of World War II, helped to bring official recognition to the textile design profession, previously undervalued in Britain. She favored batik (hand-crafted wax-resist-printed textiles), a laborious technique that allows greater design freedom than machine-printed textiles. When the batik technique was applied to rugs, it resulted in luxurious carpets with the flat style with horizontal patterns in which she prevailed. At the time, sparse, mostly white interior spaces were considered modish; rugs helped to break up the aesthetic monotony of such rooms while designating areas to be used for different purposes. This hand-colored photostat is one of twenty-two from a personal sales album she created early in her career featuring hand-knotted carpets woven by the Wilton Royal Carpet Factory. Of the twenty-two carpet designs, she created ten and acclaimed graphic artist E. McKnight Kauffer, who would later become her husband, created twelve. Kauffer would ultimately design less than two dozen carpets and instead find success in poster design while Dorn would go on to create over one hundred carpets for prestigious clients and find success at the forefront of modern applied arts in Britain.

Book, Design for a Carpet; Designed by Marion Dorn Kauffer ((American, 1896–1964)), Edward McKnight Kauffer (American, active England, 1890–1954); USA; brush and watercolor, gouache on photostat; H x W x D: 32.4 × 24.4 × 3.2 cm (12 3/4 × 9 5/8 × 1 1/4 in.) Open: 32.4 × 48.8 × 3.2 cm (12 3/4 × 19 3/16 × 1 1/4 in.) H x W x D (open and in mount): 17.8 × 40.6 × 31.8 cm (7 in. × 16 in. × 12 1/2 in.); Gift of Daren Pierce; 1982-79-17-6

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Underground Modernist: E. McKnight Kauffer.