Suzanne Conrod

Rug Art - Rescued from Oblivion: a Hooked Rug Museum of North America Research Project Suzanne Conrod

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.