W. & J. Sloane Original Art, Rug Designs with Yarn Samples

S. l. (San Francisco): W. & J. Sloane Design Room, 1929. Softcover. Five poster boards, various sizes (up to 19 1/2 x 12 1/2); in pencil, water colors, and ink; yarn samples attached to one of the boards with old pieces of tape; manuscript notes and measurements to margins; general wear to edges; a few cuts and spots, not affecting the drawings; rubbing to margins of one of the boards; ink stamps of W. & J. Sloane to lower right corner; very good or better condition.Stunning, bright, custom rug designs by the preeminent designer and supplier of rugs and furniture to the rich and famous of the 19th and the early 20th centuries, for the family of businessman and timber baron Lowell Thomas Murray of Tacoma, WA. W. & J. Sloane was founded in 1843 in New York by Scottish-American brothers William and John Sloane. They would become the first to import oriental rugs into the US and the first to coin themselves "Interior Decorators and Home Furnishers." The company opened a branch in San Francisco in 1915, originally to furnish the pavilions at the Panama-Pacific Exposition, but staying on for the demand for their products. They prospered and catered to the American elite until 1955, when the business control left the hands of the direct descendants of the Sloane brothers. The firm over-expanded, lowered its quality and prices, and ultimately filed for bankruptcy in 1985. L. T. Murray Sr. moved West from Ohio in 1906. He would found the West Fork Timber Company, the Pan Pacific Trading Company, and the Pan Pacific International Corporation, and would become President of the Pacific Logging Congress (established in 1909 to provide technical education about the forest industry).