RUGS, AND SOME JACQUARD RE- PRODUCTIONS

By Sydney Humphries.

Containing 24 full-page reproductions in colour of carpets, runners and rugs, and 8 full-page illustrations in black and white. Demy quarto, cloth, gilt top. Price 2 guineas net.

Though carpets are perhaps the most familiar of the necessaries or adornments of domestic life, they are hardly ever treated as a subject of literary interest. There are thousands of books on pictures, but scarcely any books on carpets. This is strange, for carpet-weaving and picture-painting are artistically close akin. Once this is realized, literature of the carpet will probably have a vogue. The carpet-weaver, the connoisseur in furnishing, the ordinary householder, the student of arts and crafts—all these will be astonished by what Mr. Humphries has to tell and to suggest. The neglected subject becomes fascinating at the touch of his learned and expert enthusiasm. The illustrations in colour are a most important feature of the book, and the subjects reproduced have been specially selected for their merits of design and colouring, also as typical specimens of artistic objects passing the bounds of mere utility.

The size of the volume (12 x 84 inches), which allows of ample margins for both plates and text, and the characteristic binding designed by the author, make the volume to all intents and purposes an Edition de Luxe.