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In a former Parisian soap factory known as the Savonnerie young orphans worked alongside artisan carpet weavers producing knotted pile rugs for the crown ruler’s palaces. Savonnerie carpets enjoyed tremendous popularity throughout the 17th century.In 1608 Henry IV better known as Henry the great commissioned DuPont and his apprentice Simon Lourdes to produce carpets from a workshop in the Louvre the weaving team quickly outgrew the Louvre studio instigating a move to the larger Savonnerie factory in the suburbs of Paris although the first Savonnerie carpets imitated Persian designs themes quickly changed to reflect French baroque neoclassical and rococo elements such as architectural framed medallions dense bouquets and elaborate scrolls that were more fitting with the typical French style of the Louvre palace and Versailles under the rule of Louis XIV the Savonnerie factory and style thrived. At the height of the Savonnerie movement a large staff of interns journeymen and successful designers were employed and housed by the royal factory.However royal finances the French revolution and the invention of steam powered looms led to the demise of the legendary Savonnerie factory. Before the Savonnerie was established France imported the majority of their rugs from the ottoman empire through the Franco ottoman alliance and trade agreements. Master weaver Pierre DuPont who had just returned from a trip to the Levant and the eastern Mediterranean region including Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria believed he could refine tribal rug designs from the Levant to suit the refined taste of the French court. This was a brief history of French Savanerrie rugs. Now, the one that I am offering here, could be the best example of what a true antique French Savanerries should look like, We don't find pieces like this very often, specially at this condition. This has been in my private collection & never had any intention to sell it because I had a plan for it but changed my mind. Now, someone else could have a chance to own this phenomenal Savanerrie. Remember, there are other Savanerries out there, some made in Spain, Austria, and many post 1900, which, none of them even come close to this. I bought this from an auction in Belgium in 1994, & psid very good money, more than the price that I am offering here, If you have a room for this rug & you think that could go with your decoration, don't wait because you moght not to find another one like it. It measures 9’-7” x 13’ and is made of wool on burlap foundation .
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