UNDERFOOT: Elizabeth Price

Abstract

On the cover of my copy of The Blue Guide to Victorian Architecture, a book I try to carry with me, despite its bulk, whenever I am back in Britain, is a photograph of a full-size variant of the Doge’s Palace in Venice. Built using a combination of polychrome brick and vitreous enamel tiles with terracotta detailing, it is an extraordinary expression of the parallels that John Ruskin drew between the merchant princes of the Renaissance and the modern industrial magnates who drove the Victorian economy. This building was Templeton’s Carpet Factory, designed by William Leiper in 1889, and it still stands overlooking Glasgow Green, although the manufacture of floor coverings has long since moved elsewhere. James Templeton, the founder of the business, was himself a classic example of the Victorian entrepreneur. Born in 1802 in a remote farming community on the west coast of Scotland, he moved to Glasgow and then on to Liverpool to learn the drapery trade, before making a small fortune in Mexico, which enabled him to set up his own business in his homeland. After some initial success as a shawl manufacturer in Paisley, he spotted the potential of a new chenille processing technique that could be better applied to carpets. In essence, this involved weaving together tufts of colored wool and treating the material with heated rollers to produce a soft, “frizzy” surface, which could retain intricate, colorful patterns. The method was both cheaper than that of the handtufted Axminster carpets and more adaptable for producing complete seamless carpets to cover any floor area. Templeton initially used the process to