Thanks so much for sharing Dick!
Auctioned piece that sold for $5400.00
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Dick's Adaptation of a Grenfell rug.
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This wonderful 21"X28" mat was estimated to sell for around $1500.00 at auction Tuesday night in Dover, NH. The estimate was WAY off as the gavel dropped at $5400.00. Worth every penny, I think. My poor adaptation will keep me happy for years…or until one of the kids "runs off" with it! A "tip of the hat" to the Grenfell Mission, the artists and the inspiration that the craft still supports. Dick Barr
Grenfell Mission is a medical and religious mission founded by Sir Wilfred Grenfell in the late 19th century in St. Anthony, Newfoundland and Labrador.
The purpose of the mission was to help the poor with food, clothing and medical care, as well as improving their global economic conditions. The mission was created by Grenfell and modeled after a Boston hospital founded and managed by Jessie Luther.
Grenfell Mission was famous for its burlap rugs, which were sold to hospitals in the United States and Britain. Encouraged and promoted by Dr.Grenfell, the rug makers of the mission used designs created by Mrs. Grenfell. Beginning in the early 20th century, the International Grenfell Association (IGA) hired Jessie Luther of Providence, Rhode Island, to set up and direct the Grenfell Industrial Department. Grenfell established retail shops in England and in several U.S. cities. These shops were staffed by volunteers and augmented by traveling salesmen. Following the death of Dr. Grenfell and the surge in machine-made rug production, the business gradually failed. Grenfell rugs remain highly prized by folk art collectors.
Grenfell Mission is a medical and religious mission founded by Sir Wilfred Grenfell in the late 19th century in St. Anthony, Newfoundland and Labrador.
The purpose of the mission was to help the poor with food, clothing and medical care, as well as improving their global economic conditions. The mission was created by Grenfell and modeled after a Boston hospital founded and managed by Jessie Luther.
Grenfell Mission was famous for its burlap rugs, which were sold to hospitals in the United States and Britain. Encouraged and promoted by Dr.Grenfell, the rug makers of the mission used designs created by Mrs. Grenfell. Beginning in the early 20th century, the International Grenfell Association (IGA) hired Jessie Luther of Providence, Rhode Island, to set up and direct the Grenfell Industrial Department. Grenfell established retail shops in England and in several U.S. cities. These shops were staffed by volunteers and augmented by traveling salesmen. Following the death of Dr. Grenfell and the surge in machine-made rug production, the business gradually failed. Grenfell rugs remain highly prized by folk art collectors.
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The quiet months of February and March were known as the "matting season" along the rugged coast of northern Newfoundland and Labrador. It was a time of respite from the fishing season. Generations old by the time the Grenfell Mission began, the roots of mat hooking lay with the founding English and Scottish settlers. The women all hooked, most from their earliest childhood.
In 1892, when Dr. Wilfred T. Grenfell arrived from England, he met courageous, hardworking people who were fighting terrible odds against chronic disease, hunger, poverty and exploitation. From his determination to alleviate their distress, Grenfell's medical mission began. His conviction that outright gifts of money, food and clothing would offer no long term help led to the development of a cottage industry known as "the Industrial," which produced distinctive handicrafts including hooked mats. The mat industry rose to peak production in the late 1920s and early 1930s. It began to decline as the effects of the Great Depression reached the region and fell off dramatically after World War II.
In 1905, Grenfell met Jessie Luther, an American woman who had set up a sanitarium with crafts as part of the treatment. Excited by her methods Grenfell encouraged her to come north. In 1906, Luther journeyed to the tiny settlement of St. Anthony on the northeastern most tip of Newfoundland to establish a weaving project by which the local women could augment their families' meager and unreliable income from fishing.
In 1892, when Dr. Wilfred T. Grenfell arrived from England, he met courageous, hardworking people who were fighting terrible odds against chronic disease, hunger, poverty and exploitation. From his determination to alleviate their distress, Grenfell's medical mission began. His conviction that outright gifts of money, food and clothing would offer no long term help led to the development of a cottage industry known as "the Industrial," which produced distinctive handicrafts including hooked mats. The mat industry rose to peak production in the late 1920s and early 1930s. It began to decline as the effects of the Great Depression reached the region and fell off dramatically after World War II.
In 1905, Grenfell met Jessie Luther, an American woman who had set up a sanitarium with crafts as part of the treatment. Excited by her methods Grenfell encouraged her to come north. In 1906, Luther journeyed to the tiny settlement of St. Anthony on the northeastern most tip of Newfoundland to establish a weaving project by which the local women could augment their families' meager and unreliable income from fishing.
Map of Newfoundland (chrome).
Silk or rayon stocking material, dyed; 42" x 31 1/2";
Mat maker unknown, ca. 1938.
Silk or rayon stocking material, dyed; 42" x 31 1/2";
Mat maker unknown, ca. 1938.
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