Photograph of Needlepoint Rug Designed by Jacques Yesel Muiden (July 2016)

Photograph of Needlepoint Rug Designed by Jacques Yesel Muiden (July 2016)

John Nicholas Brown II wanted to be an architect and he wanted this rug to fit in with the music room architecturally. He contacted a well-known Portuguese carpet maker, Jacques Yesel Muiden, to design and make this 100% wool needlepoint rug in 1968. In his correspondence Brown asked Muiden to include a bouquet of roses to draw attention to the center of the rug and sent a sample of wallpaper from the room as a pattern. John Nicholas Brown also chose the wallpaper. In 1936, he sought to replicate wallpaper at the John Brown House across the street, which he had once owned before donating it to the Rhode Island Historical Society. Even though Brown purchased the wallpaper more than thirty years earlier, it was more expensive than the carpet, costing around $1,235 compared to the $950 for the rug.

Banks III, Jesse

Digital copy created by the John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage

2016-07

Minah Seo

Rights Status Not Evaluated