Carpet

This carpet pattern was designed by Brendan Hartwell for the Carpet Manufacturing Company of Christchurch. Inspired by ‘New Zealand’s Native Beauty’, the pattern includes eight flowering plants 'we all see throughout the seasons in the New Zealand landscape' interspearsed with a pattern based in Māōri carving.

The brochure for the carpet included a key to the pattern, which features both the Māori and English names for each plant featured: Manuka, or Tea Tree, NZ Flax or Harakeke, Bracken Fern. Kowhai or NZ Laburnum, Kaka Beak or Scarlet Clianthus, Lacebark or Ribbonwood, Koromiko or Handsome Hebe, Pohutukawa or Christmas Tree.

The company noted that when they previewed the pattern to the trade, that it 'either excited fervent admiration or failed to raise any interest'. This piece of carpet was salvaged from a Wellington home during a renovation in the 1990s.