Oriental Rugs Glossary

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China Fette

Helen Fette (often falsely written Fetti) who emigrated to China to be a missionary, started selling rugs to raise charity funds. After a while she was looking to turn this into a more prosperous business and in the early 1920s she founded the Fette-Li Company together with the experienced Chinese rug manufacturer Li Meng Shu. Fette-Li became one of the largest exporters of the period. Fette rugs are a bit more floppy than other Chinese rugs because the cotton warps are thinner resulting in a softer structure. Helen Fette's designs were mostly inspired by Chinese embroidery. Fette-Li used fabric labels on the back of their rugs.