A vintage American rag area rug from the first quarter of the 20th century in the classic banded stripe format — a series of horizontal bands in natural earth tones of blue, brown, green, pink, red, ochre, purple, and yellow whose graphic simplicity and color variety give the piece a surprisingly modern energy.
Like the great Scandinavian kilims of the late 19th century — whose aesthetic this piece strongly resembles — the American banded rag rug achieves its beauty through the confident use of color within a rigidly simple structure. This item can be resized and custom finished including serged sides and bound ends to achieve a clean, polished result. The American rag rug tradition is one of the most authentic and deeply rooted forms of folk textile art in North America — born from the Puritan ethic of thrift and the practical necessity of keeping nothing to waste. Woven on simple looms from strips of repurposed clothing, worn blankets, and household textiles, these rugs transformed discarded materials into objects of remarkable beauty. The tradition has its strongest roots in New England and the Amish and Shaker communities of Pennsylvania, where the ethic of upcycling and reuse was elevated to an art form.
