Axminster Carpets

Axminster Carpets Ltd are an Axminster, Devon based English manufacturer of carpets, particularly the same-named Axminster carpets.

Whilst visiting Cheapside Market, London, Devon-based weaver Thomas Whitty was impressed by a large Turkish carpet he saw. On his return to Axminster, he used his skills to work out how to produce a product of similar quality. After several months work he completed his first carpet on midsummer's day 1755.

Whitty's carpets, looking much like horizontal-tapestries, became the benchmark for wealthy aristocrats to have in their country homes and town houses, between 1755 and 1835. The company produced Axminster carpets for: the music room of the Royal Pavilion, Brighton; Chatsworth House; Powderham Castle; Saltram House; and Warwick Castle. King George III and Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz purchased Axminster carpets and also visited the factory.

In 1800, the company made a 74-by-52-foot (23 m × 16 m) carpet for Mahmud II, the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, known today as the most famous Axminster Carpet of all. Depicting a blazing sun, moon and a whole constellation of stars, it cost £1000 (equivalent to £72,815 in 2015). Carried out of the factory by thirty men from the local Congregational Church, it was initially placed in the Topkapi Palace. It was then moved to the Defterdar Palace, where it became the property of Esma Sultan, the daughter of Sultan Mustapha III.