Antique French Savonnerie rugs exemplify the formal grace and elegance of classical European design. Savonneries originated in France when European taste turned away for a time from Oriental carpets in the later eighteenth and earlier nineteenth centuries. The production of Savonnerie rugs declined in the latter half of the eighteenth century, until 1805 when the designs were revived by Napoleon,
During the Islamic occupation of the eleventh century, Medieval Spain was the first European country to make knotted pile rugs.
