Marilyn Garrow brought this English wool-on-canvas carpet to the Merchandise Mart from Suffolk, England. It had been hand-embroidered in about 1860, right on the cusp between handmade carpets and machine-made Axminsters. It was a "tile" pattern, and each tile was embroidered at home by a different outworker in a tight cross-stitch. The pieces were then assembled by the retailer - there was no manufacturer as such - the carpet was one of the last products of a traditional "cottage industry." The dyes were all natural, vegetable dyes - again, just before chemical dyes were introduced - and one of the points of minor interest that Marilyn told me was that the "mordant" that fixed the color in the black dye was made of iron filings that wore the wool, so that black areas wore out faster than other colors. $10,400.

Marilyn Garrow, Fine Textile Arts, Suffolk, England. 1728 648671, marilyn@marilyngarrow.com, www.marilyngarrow.com