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About Us
To our fellow Arts and Crafts enthusiasts
In August of 1991, my wife Jerri and I, at the insistence of our new friend Dard Hunter III, stopped by the Village of East Aurora to visit the Roycroft campus. We emerged later that day, well…not quite like butterflies, but changed. The years since have been spent feverishly collecting little bits of anything Roycroft, and ultimately, anything Arts and Crafts.
At the time, I was employed as a salesman in a local Oriental rug shop. The coincidental publication of "Arts and Crafts Carpets" by Malcolm Haslam that same year made it possible for anyone to read a concise and scholarly overview of the period, complete with lavish illustrations.
The rug industry, perceiving a market, began to duplicate the rugs pictured so beautifully in that book. Unfortunately, the carpets of the British Arts and Crafts era form a minute category within the scholarship of antique rugs. Few, if any, rug producers cared enough about the period themselves to understand the design principles involved. What resulted was a torrent of distorted caricatures of the designs so beautifully rendered by Morris and Voysey.
One-by-one Jerri and I tried all the rugs in our home, and always with the same result: We hated them. Many were ignorantly copied from Turkish designs used early in the Donegal production, which are not Arts and Crafts designs at all! Others were fantasy rugs: new designs supposedly by Voysey, but actually fabrications. Certain principles of color in use a hundred years ago are no longer prevalent today, yet every catalog we saw showed gray Indian Oushaks and one of those red and green "Donnemara" carpets. Who wants one? In my opinion, it really matters which old pieces you choose to copy, but that requires an opinion, and that requires some passion on the subject. My wife, the scientist, will tell you that you can’t get more energy out of something than you put in. Well, you can’t get any more heart or soul out of a rug than you put in either.
By March 1995 I couldn’t take it anymore. Assuming that there were many of our fellow Arts and Crafts enthusiasts out there in the same position as we, Jerri and I started Jax Rugs. Using a set of Dard Hunter illustrations given to us by Dard (III) one Christmas, we developed three designs and began selling them. Our goal became to see that you get what you want.
To accomplish this, we make our rugs in Nepal, where they will gladly make individual pieces in custom sizes and colors. The wool is superior in Nepal and all the work, including spinning, is done by hand. The resulting carpets are lush and attractive.
All our Morris and Donegal designs are guaranteed to be authentic period designs drawn with meticulous care to preserve the character of the originals, and colored after well-chosen examples. For the antique collector, we have seven designs handwoven and tea-washed in China. Thses rugs are Turkish knotted on green wool foundations and are the most accurate reproductions of rare, antique Donegals ever made!Additionally, we have six designs hand hooked in China. These are in blended shades of earth tones and have a "nubby" surface texture that forms the perfect compliment with Arts and Crafts interiors. All hooked rug designs/sizes retail under $1000.00.
Our rugs are the most authentic Arts & Crafts carpets made in the last one hundred years. Every Turkish or Nepalese rug is woven from 100% handspun wool and is stocked in a variety of sizes (subject to availability). Nepalese pieces can be custom woven to your exact size/color specifications. Rugs can be shipped for your approval anywhere in the United States.
We are the first and only rug company to deal exclusively in Arts and Crafts carpets and reproductions. Our goal remains to see that you get what you want.
Del Martin
Jax Rugs
Del & Jerri Martin.
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