A series of coincidences brought this Goya carpet to feature in the Museum of Carpet’s Summer Exhibition Frocks & Floors, Fibre & Fabrics.

Frocks & Floors, Fibre & Fabrics showcases dresses from the Kidderminster College Collection, set up in 1974 by Olga Moyle, Head of Art, as a resource for the BA (Hons) Carpets and Related Textiles course, alongside carpets of their time from the Museum of Carpet.

Goya was a best seller for Carpet Trades and sold in excess of 1,000,000 square yards. So how did this room-size carpet find its way to the Museum?  Spotted on an estate agent’s website  in Scotland  by Museum of Carpet volunteer, Anthea Harris Fry in  Spring 2021, the house in Glasgow was already ‘sale agreed’. Anthea wrote to the agent and asked them to pass on a note to the buyer explaining the significance of the carpet and suggested that if they ever wanted to dispose of it, then the Museum of Carpet would be happy to accept it as a donation.

Initially, they wanted to keep it, but a few months later they contacted her again and said they would like to donate it. All they knew was that the previous owner of the house had been a naval officer, who had had the carpet possibly since new.

Figure 1 – L-R Heather Freeman, Heather Goodman (Designer of the Goya carpet) and John Freeman

Trustee Heather Freeman happened to mention that she was going up to Scotland around that time and she and her husband were able to collect it.

Goya certainly makes an impact in the exhibition. We were fortunate to have Goya’s designer, Heather Goodwin, with us at the private view on 28 July when Olga’s daughter and Art Historian, Franny Moyle opened the exhibition.

The exhibition runs from 3 July to 31 August 2024.

Written by Jill Edwards, photos by Colin Hill