Banana leaf patterned carpet

c.1990-92
Wool

Description

This carpet was woven c.1990 when the Picture Gallery was restored to the 1872 decorative designs of Bonnar and Carfrae. Nineteenth century photographs show the walls covered in paintings which had been part of Patrick Home’s collection. The room was full of furniture including the pieces designed for the room which had been commissioned by Nancy Stephens and George Home in 1811-15 from William Trotter.

The carpet chosen in the 1870s was a banana leaf design, perhaps selected by the family to demonstrate their past connections with tropical plantations in the Caribbean. Bananas were not recorded as being grown at Waltham and Paraclete as crops but may have provided subsistence foods for the people on the estates.

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