| Description | Soho, near Birmingham, October 4th, 1808.
Gentlemen,
I am sorry to have detained so long your patterns, my absence from home and engagements since my return not having permitted me to examine them sooner.
The dining room for which they are intended being of a peculiar colour, and fitted up generally in such a fashion as to require a carpet of suitable colour, I do not [think] upon trial that any of the patterns sent, with the exception of the one marked, would harmonize with the general appearance of the room. The design of that pattern is objectionable, and particularly when viewed with the animals reversed. If, therefore, the same colour for the principal part of them, with the exception of the blue, could be adapted to the design of one of the other patterns, in the manner shewn in the specimen of oil cloth sent herewith, it would be more likely to meet my views; or if, instead of the animals, sprigs and flowers were substituted of the same colours, something . . . of that mark’d B, the objections to the pattern would be removed and the effect of the colours, it is thought, preserved. You will please to say if either of these desiderata can be accomplished and in which you think the best effect is likely to be produc’d.
The carpet will be preferred with a border and not to fit the room, which is of a particular form. For your government a string is sent herewith of the length and breadth of the carpet, which has been considered a surer guide for you than by making the measurements, as there is sometimes considerable variations in the length of the rule.
I shall be glad to receive your answer as soon as possible and am, gentlemen, your obedient servant,
M. Robinson Boulton
PS. When the carpet is determined upon I shall thank you to send a hearth rug to suit it.
Length of the required carpet, 17 feet 8 inches.
Breadth at one end, 13 feet 2½ inches.
At the other end, 13 1
Or according to the strings herewith, strain’d tight. |