If you ask around, you’ll find that lots of folks have a vintage rug or 3 tucked away somewhere. Such is the case with my friend, Susan. She and her partner, Norman, have a lovely cottage near Minden, that’s been in Norman’s family for some time.
It contains several rugs that are clearly vintage treasures. No one is sure of the provenance of these 2 rugs. They could have been made by Norman’s mother, but maybe not.
Check out the tasselled fringe that’s been added to this one! Susan thinks it had been stored folded, as you can see some repairs on the reverse. Likely the burlap backing started to perish…..but how’s about those hot pink cherry blossoms! This was not a dull rug in its day. It was a focal point of the room.
The pattern on this next one is a bit hard to discern, as it’s faded on BOTH sides (likely, in part, due to the dyes used), but the flowers look kinda like roses.
The pièce de résistance of the collection, however, is this one.
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| Reverse side, showing the original colours. |
Here’s what Susan has written for us about the rug:
Norman's dad, Oscar Rogers, was with the RCAF and was posted to a radar station at Tilting on Fogo Island during the war.
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| Photo of Oscar Rogers at Fogo Island, taken during WW2. |
He was impressed with the rug hooking by the local artisans and commissioned a woman to make a rug for him, based on his own design.The resulting rug has been hanging on the wall at the cottage for as long as I've been going there (1990) and of course for decades before.
Norman tells me he learned that someone else at the station liked it so much, he got the woman to make one of the same design for him too (without Oscar's permission).
When we were there in 2017, Norman took a picture of it with him, to try and learn something about it. Despite a potential lead on a woman who had known many earlier hookers in the area, we never were able to connect with her. :^(
I looked closely at it, but I have no idea what it's made from. Wool?Cotton? You might be able to tell. [looks like wool blankets to me] I've included pics of both front and back (slightly richer colours on the back). Also the bound edging, front and back bottom corner. [interesting to me that the burlap edge was not whipped - just folded under, but still visible on the right side!] In the picture of the back, at the top corners, you can see the elderly pins that Oscar used to hang it on the wall.
So we know that one of the rugs at the cottage came from Newfoundland….is it possible that all 3 of them came from there? 2 purchased, plus one commissioned? (Bonus, there is (or was) at least one more rug of the same design.)
What do you think???
A big thank you to Susan* and Norman for allowing us to post photos of their vintage rugs.
(*Susan is an acclaimed writer of short crime fiction. Check out her work here!)