A mid-20th century American rug and vintage carpet with alternating polychrome tiles of dense vertical and horizontal stripes overall. Antique rug hooking in the present form might have developed in North America. The story likes to repeat itself, thus primarily this humble craft constituted the domain of the poor. About 1830, when weaving centers began producing machine-made carpets for the rich, the trend for floor coverings arose in the United States. Less wealthy had to use their skill and imagination to transform whatever they had into valid utilitarian objects. Having no access to thrums, resourceful American women took all kinds of fabric remnants and created imaginative and beautiful American hand-hooked area rugs.