The craft of weaving a fine wool carpet by hand in the old South

Since 1955, Mr. Dang Huu Binh officially established Dong Hung carpet weaving company, creating sophisticated rugs, bringing the profession to development.
The art of woolen carpet weaving comes from the Middle East. From the original function is the carpet spread on the floor for a cozy, smooth foot, the most beautiful and excellent woven rugs are raised into decorative items to show the class and wealth of the owner.

In courts and palaces, elaborate and splendid woven rugs play an important role in the interior decoration of large and small rooms. There was a time when wool carpets were sold very expensive, becoming a valuable product in the treasure of kings and used as tribute between nations. Until now, the hand-woven and elaborate traditionally woven rugs are still expensive decorations for luxury villas. The art of weaving wool carpets imported to Vietnam has no long history, only about a hundred years. In 1926, in the village of Hang Kenh, Hai Phong, a 13-year-old boy named Dang Huu Binh broke up with his family to make a trip. Binh traveled all the way to Tianjin province in China, where he practiced carpet weaving centuries ago, which has produced the most beautiful and famous carpets in Asia, to learn the craft of carpet weaving. After 6 years studying, he returned home and worked at the Hang Kenh carpet weaving factory – Hai Phong, one of the largest carpet weaving factories in Southeast Asia at that time. The document does not indicate that this weaving workshop belongs to Mr. Binh, his family or that of another person. The Saigon Book looks back one hundred years. Photo: Phanbook. An article (without author’s name) on the page vinacarpet.vn said “wool carpet making appeared in Hang Kenh, Hai Phong around 1930 (?) and stopped around 1944. At that time, every year Hai Phong exported to France and Hong Kong about 1,000 m2 wool carpet. The color, pattern, layout, decorative concept of Hang Kenh wool carpet was almost like Chinese wool carpet at that time. Although there was a painter (graduated from Indochina Fine Arts College) at that time gave some new wool carpet samples to the Hang Kenh wool carpet weaving establishment, in order to lessen the Chinese carpet look of Hang Kenh products, but he did not. accepted by customers because they used to use Chinese-style carpets ”. Mr. Binh is not really the first person to learn the profession of carpet weaving, but perhaps a rare Vietnamese artisan learns the craft of weaving traditional high-class wool rugs from a country with more sophisticated carpet making. After working for a while at the Hang Kenh textile company, Dang Huu Binh moved to the South to set up a career in Saigon. From 1955, Mr. Dang Huu Binh officially established Dong Hung carpet weaving company, also known as Vietnam Industry of Weaving Carpet, concurrently held the position of technical director. His workshop was set on 2,300 square feet of land, consisting of a painting office for design and a weaving workshop of thirteen hand-woven wooden frames, of which a giant 13-meter-wide frame, 8 meters tall is the largest. Products of Dong Hung carpet weaving company. The picture in the Saigon book looks back a hundred years. The drawings are all sketched by Mr. Binh, two sons and a grandson. Weavers are completely women, there are up to fifty permanent workers, including people in the family of Dang Huu Binh. The process of weaving carpets in Dong Hung carpet company was reported Free World Volume IX, number 9 describes in the article: “To weave a rug, first of all, sketch a small model with all colors and images. Then, depending on the size and proportion, magnify on a glossy paper. The weavers base on the pattern and the scale of the carpet will weave, base the frame with cotton thread “. “This cotton thread is called the vertical thread. Then the wool color is chosen to weave the weft. The tools of the carpet-weaving industry are a sharp, sharp knife, a pair of scissors and a beating table with teeth like a comb. Every time a knot of wool is tied, between two standing cotton threads, the worker uses a knife to cut off the wool and knots the next second like that for the rest of his work, for there are at least four on the loom. five workers work together. After tying all the wool knots in a turn, push down one of the cotton threads and press down hard with the table to tighten the knots. At the same time, a second cotton thread is also pushed down diagonally so that the wool knots cannot move. For every cross-street to make another road ”. The average weaver completes a square meter in 5 days. The best or medium rugs differ in the thickness of the knots. For example, the premium type has a square meter of wool with four kilograms of wool with 100,000 knots, the second three and a half kilograms with 67,000 knots, the third 3 kilograms of wool with 45,000 knots. The hand-woven textile industry in the South at that time was considered to be very sophisticated and was on the rise. In Saigon before 1975 there was an exhibition of tapestries and wall rugs for decoration, held at Thanh Le’s shop, Tu Do Street (Dong Khoi), to introduce to the public. the prosperity of the wool carpets industry and the latest art products of this small technology industry. The rugs displayed here are all produced by Dong Hung firm of Dang Huu Binh at 270 Le Van Duyet Street, and by the Thanh Le house as an agent.