Through the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the designs became more and more naturalistic. A wide variety of detached motifs appear—sprays of fruit blossoms, real and mythological animals, and symbols of the three great religions of China—Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism.
Chinese rugs were not introduced into the western world till late in the nineteenth century, probably because travelers and traders considered them so inferior to the rugs of Persia and Turkey.
At the St. Louis World's Fair in 1903, however, an especially fine Chinese rug won a first prize, and the demand for them began to grow.
During the First World War, when Near East trade was disrupted by battling armies, dealers turned to China for merchandise, and Chinese rugs became very popular in the United States.
