Hand-knotted Hammersmith rug with stylised floral border enclosing a central panel of scrolling flowers and leaves. Most Hammersmith rugs were made of wool but this example is made of mohair, providing a lustrous effect. It was given to the Gallery by Martha Wooldridge, (1863-1958) a classical dancer who had been left it by the radical preacher Stewart Headlam, whom she lived with in an Arts & Crafts House called ‘Wavertree’ in St Margarets, Twickenham (Headlam is perhaps most famous for putting up half of Oscar Wilde’s bail when he was tried for ‘gross indecency’ in 1885).
