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Mary Watts - Pelican Rug

On Thursday the 20th of October 1988 Phillips Son and Neale held an auction of Decorative Arts in their Mayfair saleroom.  Lot 310 illustrated in the catalogue was described as a Donegal woollen rug made by Alexander Morton and Company, possibly designed by Archibald Knox and carrying a printed pre sale estimate of £1,000-£1,500.  Some of us knew better; this was a rarely available to the market Mary Watts Pelican rug.

Regrettably, I failed to purchase this wonderful representation of Mary Watts’ work, which was frustrating because as a long time visitor to the Gallery and Memorial Chapel in Compton, I felt it a shame that an original was not on display amongst the core collection.

As fortune would have it some 6 years later I founded Veedon Fleece Ltd. with the goal of reviving high quality, hand knotted carpet weaving on an ethical basis and without the use of child labour.  In the late 1980's early 1990's carpets seemed to be being produced by hand just to the lowest cost price and accordingly, qualities on the whole had dropped and some pretty unpleasant practices were being undertaken on the grounds of economy.

Founding the Veedon Fleece looms in the then Kingdom of Nepal, I managed to inspire a willing workforce to create almost any design and also managed to source excellent quality wool, dyes and with a lot of help, really everything needed to start to build the ethical and high quality bespoke company that Veedon Fleece is renowned for today, constantly striving for new levels of excellence.

By 1999 Veedon Fleece was well established and I realised that I was in a position to recreate a Mary Watts Pelican rug and do it well.  Veedon Fleece had already recreated some Donegal designs by Mr Voysey and also some elaborate William Morris designed carpets, each on a one off basis and enthusiastically received by the patrons who had commissioned them.

I always had the feeling that the colours of the "Phillips" rug had been washed out or artificially faded by time (some of the dyes used then were not totally colour fast).  Working initially with my own intuition, I strengthened the green and blue tones to what I had felt the original would have been and excitedly sent the design and colour reference to my looms in Kathmandu.  Within one month the point papers were drawn by hand and colours skilfully blended.  Another three months went by and the magnificent and slightly complex design had been completed by our two best weavers.  After a further period of final finishing, the re created Pelican rug was booked on a plane to the UK and I was delighted to donate it to the gallery. Just over a decade past the sale at Philips and to my absolute delight, Richard Jeffreries unearthed an original Mary Watts painted cartoon section as originally envisaged and amazingly, my re-colouring of the washed out Phillips rug was pretty accurate.

The Veedon Fleece Pelican Rug has now been on display at the gallery for almost a decade and I am delighted that it is now going to have the opportunity to raise funds for the on going sustenance of the Watts Gallery.

The idea is that Veedon Fleece will be delighted to produce more Pelican rugs to order and a 20% donation of the sale price from each rug will be deposited with the Gallery from Veedon Fleece's funds.

As a custom weaving house the good news is that almost any size carpet can be made upon request and we are delighted to offer a 20% built in contribution of part of the retail sale price from any carpet order specified from the Gallery 

Veedon Fleece are well known and respected within the industry for weaving high quality hand knotted carpets in many different luxury materials - pashmina, silk, veedon and best Tibetan wool.  The first Veedon Fleece Mary Watts Pelican Rug was woven using best Tibetan wool and a current retail price would be £1,979 inclusive of vat and delivery anywhere in the UK.

Veedon Fleece are donating a large Pelican carpet to grace the floor of the new reference centre and, of course, will be delighted to quote for any special requests for carpets of other sizes (and designs).

For any retail commission that comes through the Watts Gallery,  Veedon Fleece will donate 20% to the Watts Gallery Fund.

The standard size of a Mary Watts Pelican Rug recreation, hand made by Veedon Fleece on their exclusive looms is 8'3” by 4'1” (approx 253cm by 123cm).  Variance of 1”-2” either way is to be expected, as each rug is made by hand.  Lead time is approximately 12-16 weeks from placement of order (unless we are lucky enough to have one in stock).