Another kind of hand weaving is the tapestry method, wherein the weft colours, wound upon wooden needles, are threaded round and between the warp ends, leaving a flat or slightly ribbed surface, not unlike that of an ingrain carpet. The absence of a tufted pile does not make this a luxurious carpet; but it enables a fine pitch to be employed, and the richest and most delicate effects of design and colour to be obtained. Carpets of this type have long been made at Les Gobelins, Paris, Aubusson, and Beauvais, in France, and Tournai, in Belgium. The work is slow and highly skilled, and the product is naturally very expensive.
There is no better kind of carpet than the carpet made by hand; though this is far from implying that all hand-tufted carpets are superior to all machine-made ones. But there is no method of combining the pile with the foundation so good as the knot; and it cannot be completely imitated by the cleverest power-loom invented. The hand-tufted carpet possesses an individuality, even in its faults, which no product of a machine can attain, and which, after all, is an attribute to a work of art. More of the soul of the worker has passed into it than the clashing metal of a power loom will permit to filter into its product.
Hand-made carpets have a further advantage in their adaptability to requirements. A single carpet, for instance, can be made to any specified shape, size, design, colour, and quality. It is possible to produce in one piece carpets of oval, circular, or L-shaped form, or to conform to irregular curves and angles.
Qualities are numerous, but may be said to vary mainly between about 9 and 400 tufts to the square inch. The average European hand-made carpet will not run to more than from 16 to 30.
As regards materials, the tuft yarn will vary from a heavy woollen for coarse pitches to a fine worsted for the closer, while silk is occasionally employed, producing a carpet of greater lustre, but less resiliency.
The Eastern weavers are fond of using woollen of suitable counts for both warp and weft, though a cotton warp is quite common. Flax or linen, however, is more commonly employed by the European maker; and the combination of strength and softness in this material seem to make it almost ideal for the purpose.