Original antique Holbein rugs were hand-loomed requiring labor-intensive efforts that dated back to pre-Islamic European societies. Hand-carded sheep’s wool was the most common yarn used to make Holbein rugs, but there was nothing common about the weavers employed to produce these masterworks. Weavers were required to possess superior skills due to the complicated attention to detail required to craft every rug. Examples of cotton Holbein rugs are rare; examples of silk-piled carpet made before 1870 in the Holbein style are even rarer.