Antique Textile History

Weaving is a textile craft in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads, called the warp and the filling or weft (older woof), are interlaced to form a fabric or cloth. The warp threads run lengthways on the piece of cloth, and the weft runs across from side to side, across the bolt of cloth.

Cloth is woven on a loom, a device that holds the warp threads in place while filling threads are woven through them. Weft is an old English word meaning "that which is woven".

The way the warp and filling threads interlace with each other is called the weave. The majority of woven products are created with one of three basic weaves: plain weave, satin weave, or twill.

Woven cloth can be plain (in one colour or a simple pattern), or can be woven in decorative or artistic designs, including tapestries. Fabric in which the warp and/or weft is tie-dyed before weaving is called ikat.

The ancient craft of handweaving, along with hand spinning, remains a popular craft. The majority of commercial fabrics in the West are woven on computer-controlled Jacquard looms. In the past, simpler fabrics were woven on dobby looms, while the Jacquard harness adaptation was reserved for more complex patterns. Some believe the efficiency of the Jacquard loom, with its Jacquard weaving process, makes it more economical for mills to use them to weave all of their fabrics, regardless of the complexity of the design.

Process

In general, weaving involves the interlacing of two sets of threads at right anglesto each other: the warp and the weft. The warp are held taut and in parallel order, typically by means of a loom, though some forms of weaving may use other methods. The loom is warped (or dressed) with the warp threads passing through heddles on two or more harnesses. The warp threads are moved up or down by the harnesses creating a space called the shed. The weft thread is wound onto spools called bobbins. The bobbins are placed in a shuttle that carries the weft thread through the shed. The raising and lowering sequence of warp threads gives rise to many possible weave structures.

Both warp and weft can be visible in the final product. By spacing the warp more closely, it can completely cover the weft that binds it, giving a warpfaced textile such as rep weave. Conversely, if the warp is spread out, the weft can slide down and completely cover the warp, giving a weftfaced textile, such as a tapestry or a Kilim rug. There are a variety of loom styles for hand weaving and tapestry. In tapestry, the image is created by placing weft only in certain warp areas, rather than across the entire warp width.

Ancient and traditional cultures

There are some indications that weaving was already known in the Palaeolithic era. An indistinct textile impression has been found at Pavlov , Moravia. Neolithic textiles are well known from finds in pile dwellings in Switzerland. One extant fragment from the Neolithic was found in >Fayum , at a site dated to about 5000 BCE. This fragment is woven at about 12 threads by 9 threads per cm in a plain weave. >Flax was the predominant fibre in Egypt at this time and continued popularity in the Nile Valley , even after wool became the primary fibre used in other cultures around 2000 BCE. Another Ancient Egyptian item, known as the Badari dish, depicts a textile workshop. This item, catalogue number UC9547, is now housed at the Petrie Museum and dates to about 3600 BCE. Enslaved women worked as weavers during the Sumerian Era and then dried them. Next, they beat out the dirt and the wool. The wool was then graded, bleached , and spun into a thread. The spinners pulled out fibers and twisted them together. This was done either by rolling fibers between palms or using a hooked stick. The thread was then placed on a wooden or bone spindle and rotated on a clay whorl , which operated like a flywheel.

The slaves then worked in three-woman teams on looms, where they stretched the threads, after which they passed threads over and under each other at perpendicular angles. The finished cloth was then taken to a fuller.

Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897) points to numerous Biblical references to weaving in ancient times:

American Southwest

Navajo rug

Textile weaving, using cotton dyed with pigments, was a dominant craft among pre-contact tribes of the American southwest, including various Pueblo peoples, the Zuni, and the Utetribes. The first Spaniards to visit the region wrote about seeing Navajo blankets. With the introduction of Navajo-Churro sheep, the resulting woolen products have become very well known. By the 1700s the Navajo had begun to import yarn with their favorite color, Bayeta red. Using an upright loom, the Navajos wove blankets and then rugs after the 1880s for trade. Navajo traded for commercial wool, such as Germantown, imported from Pennsylvania. Under the influence of European-American settlers at trading posts, Navajos created new and distinct styles, including "Two Gray Hills" (predominantly black and white, with traditional patterns), "Teec Nos Pos" (colorful, with very extensive patterns), "Ganado" (founded by Don Lorenzo Hubbell, red dominated patterns with black and white, "Crystal" (founded by J. B. Moore), Oriental and Persian styles (almost always with natural dyes), "Wide Ruins," "Chinlee," banded geometric patterns, "Klagetoh," diamond type patterns, "Red Mesa" and bold diamond patterns. Many of these patterns exhibit a fourfold symmetry, which is thought to embody traditional ideas about harmony, or hózhó.

Amazonia

In Native Amazonia, densely woven palm mosquito netting, or tents, were utilized by the Panoans, Tupí, Western Tucano, Yameo, Záparoans, and perhaps by the indigenous peoples of the central Huallaga River basin (Steward 1963:520). Aguaje palm-bast (Mauritia flexuosa, Mauritia minor, or swamp palm) and the frond spears of the Chambira palm Astrocaryum chambira, A.munbaca, A.tucuma, also known as Cumare or Tucum) have been used for centuries by the Urarina of the Peruvian Amazon to make cordage, net-bags hammocks, and to weave fabric. Among the Urarina, the production of woven palm-fiber goods is imbued with varying degrees of an aesthetic attitude, which draws its authentication from referencing the Urarina’s primordial past. Urarina mythology attests to the centrality of weaving and its role in engendering Urarina society. The post-diluvial creation myt accords women’s weaving knowledge a pivotal role in Urarina social reproduction. Even though palm-fiber cloth is regularly removed from circulation through mortuary rites, Urarina palm-fiber wealth is neither completely inalienable, nor fungible since it is a fundamental medium for the expression of labor and exchange. The circulation of palm-fiber wealth stabilizes a host of social relationships, ranging from marriage and fictive kinship (compadrazco, spiritual compeership) to perpetuating relationships with the deceased.

Islamic world

Girls weaving a Persian rug, Hamadan, circa 1922. Note the design templates ( called 'cartoons') at top of loom.

Hand weaving of Persian carpets and kilims has been an important element of the tribal crafts of many of the subregions of modern day Iran. Examples of carpet types are the Lavar Kerman carpet from Kerman and the Seraband rug from Arak.

An important innovation in weaving that was developed in the Muslim worldduring the Islamic Golden Age was the introduction of foot pedals to operate a loom. The first such devices appeared in Syria, Iran and Islamic parts of East Africa, where "the operator sat with his feet in a pit below a fairly low-slung loom." By 1177, it was further developed in Al-Andalus, where having the mechanism was "raised higher above the ground on a more substantial frame." This type of loom spread to the Christian parts of Spain and soon became popular all over medieval Europe.

Europe

Dark Age and Medieval Europe

Weighted-warp looms were commonplace in Europe until the development of more advanced looms around the 10th–11th centuries. Especially in colder climates, where a large floor loom would take up too much valuable floor space, the more primitive looms remained in use until the 20th Century to produce "homespun" cloth for individual family needs. The primary material woven in most of Europe was wool, though linen was also common, and imported silk thread was occasionally made into cloth. Both men and women were weavers, though the task often fell to the wife of a farming household. Fabric width was limited to the reach of the weaver, but was sufficient for the tunic-style garments worn in much of Europe at the time. A plain weave or twill was common, since professional weavers with skills to produce better fabrics were rare.

Weaving was a strictly local enterprise until later in the period, when larger weaving operations sprung up in places like Brugges, in Flanders. Within this setting, master weavers could improve their craft and pass skills along to apprentices. As the Middle Ages progressed, significant trade in fine cloth developed, and loom technology improved to allow very thin threads to be woven. Weaver's guilds (and associated craft guilds, like fullers) gained significant political and economic power in some of the bigger weaving cities.

Colonial America

Colonial America was heavily reliant on Great Britain for manufactured goods of all kinds. British policy was to encourage the production of raw materials in colonies. Weaving was not prohibited, but the export of British wool was. As a result many people wove cloth from locally produced fibers in Colonial America.

In Colonial times the colonists mostly used wool, cotton and flax (linen) for weaving, though hemp fiber could be made into serviceable canvas and heavy cloth also. They could get one cotton crop each fall, but until the invention of the cotton gin it was a labor-intensive process to separate the seeds from the cotton fiber. Flax and hemp were harvested in the summer, and the stalks rendered for the long fibers within. Wool could be sheared up to twice yearly, depending on the breed of sheep.

A plain weave was preferred in Colonial times, and the added skill and time required to make more complex weaves kept them from common use in the average household. Sometimes designs were woven into the fabric but most were added after weaving using wood block prints or embroidery.

Industrial Revolution

Before the Industrial Revolution, weaving remained a manual craft, usually undertaken part-time by family craftspeople. Looms might be broad or narrow; broad looms were those too wide for the weaver to pass the shuttle through the shed, so that the weaver needed an assistant (often an apprentice). This ceased to be necessary after John Kay invented the flying shuttle in 1733, which also sped up the process of weaving.

Great Britain

The first attempt to mechanise weaving was the work of Edmund Cartwrightfrom 1785. He built a factory at Doncaster and obtained a series of patents between 1785 and 1792. In 1788, his brother Major John Cartwight built Revolution Mill at Retford (named for the centenary of the Glorious Revolution. In 1791, he licensed his loom to the Grimshaw brothers of Manchester, but their Knott Mill burnt down the following year (possibly a case of arson). Edmund Cartwight was granted a reward of £10,000 by Parliament for his efforts in 1809. However, success in power-weaving also required improvements by others, including H. Horrocks of Stockport. Only during the two decades after about 1805, did power-weaving take hold. Textile manufacture was one of the leading sectors in the British Industrial Revolution, but weaving was a comparatively late sector to be mechanised. The loom became semi-automatic in 1842 with Kenworthy and Bulloughs Lancashire Loom. The various innovations took weaving from a home-based artisan activity (labour intensive and man-powered) to steam driven factories process. A large metal manufacturing industry grew to produce the looms, firms such as Howard & Bullough of Accrington, and Tweedales and Smalley and Platt Brothers. Most cotton weaving took place in weaving sheds, in small townscircling Greater Manchester and worsted weaving in West Yorkshire– men and women with weaving skills emigrated, and took the knowledge to their new homes in New England, in places like Pawtucket and Lowell.

The invention in France of the Jacquard loom, enabled complicated patterned cloths to be woven, by using punched cards to determine which threads of coloured yarn should appear on the upper side of the cloth.

America,1800–1900

Jacquard loom

The Jacquard loom attachment was perfected in 1801, and was becoming common in Europe by 1806. It came to the US in the early 1820's, some immigrant weavers bringing jacquard equipment with them, and spread west from New England. At first it was used with traditional human-powered looms. As a practical matter, previous looms were mostly limited to the production of simple geometric patterns. The jacquard allowed individual control of each warp thread, row by row without repeating, so very complex patterns were suddenly feasible. Jacquard woven coverlets (bedspreads) became popular by mid-century, in some cases being custom-woven with the name of the customer embedded in the programmed pattern. Undyed cotton warp was usually combined with dyed wool weft.

Natural dyes were used until just before the American Civil War, when artificial dyes started to come into use,

The weaving of textiles is another of the more ancient crafts of mankind, and another of those essential to a pioneer society. Its origins are lost, along with those of many other crafts, in the deep shadow of Time. Simple fabrics are made by weaving threads in and out across a layer of other threads at a right angle. An obscurity has fallen over the details of this once common process today when the average person has little or no contact with the means by which his cloth is manufactured. Also, it is a far cry from the miraculous efficiencies of industrial weaving to the simple methods of the hand loom. Yet the mysteries of warp and woof, heddle and shuttle, are not very profound and may be easily understood. The warp is the lengthwise threads. These must be the strongest and are usually of a better type or grade of thread than the crosswise threads, called the woof, or weft. A loom is a frame upon which the warp threads are vertically stretched. These threads are passed, at top and bottom, through tiny loops of string or wire on small pieces of wood, called heddles, which resemble minute piano keys. At the top of the loom every other heddle is attached to one crossbar, while the intervening ones are attached to another. Thus, when one crossbar is pushed out every other thread is separated from its neighbor. When the other crossbar is pushed out the action is reversed. In weaving this permits the easy separation of every other warp thread so that the woof thread, attached to a shuttle, has merely to be tossed through the intervening space, after which the separation of the warp threads is reversed and the shuttle is passed back again. The above process is for the weaving of simple, unpatterned textiles. When patterns are desired, more than two sets of heddles are necessary, for threads of different colors. The foot-loom, with various pedals to work the crossbars, thus leaving both hands free to manipulate the shuttle, came in the early 17th or late 16th centuries. To produce still more intricate patterns the draw-loom was invented. This was a method whereby the many sets of heddles were operated by cords which were pulled by a skilful small boy who had to swing about precariously, monkey-fashion, atop the large loom. In 1733 John Kay, an Englishman, invented the flying shuttle; a means of making the shuttle pass back and forth by the pulling of cords instead of by hand to hand tossing. But this invention did not find ready acceptance. Then in 1784 Edmund Cartwright invented the power loom, which performed all the operations of moving the heddles and the shuttle in any manner desired. Cartwright was an English clergyman with no knowledge of weaving and practically none of mechanics. He is an outstanding example of the frequency with which amateurs in the crafts and sciences make great discoveries, possibly because they are uninhibited by any knowledge of the "real difficulties" involved in their ideas. The superhuman weaving machinery of today's textile mills is essentially based on the principle of the simple loom of antiquity. It was really not until almost the 18th century that Great Britain became frightened at the possibility of American manufactures making the Colonies economically independent. The London Company had sent weavers, among innumerable other craftsmen, to Jamestown in 1620. There was no 17th century British resistance to cloth manufacture in New England. The Pilgrims landed at Plymouth in 1620 and the Puritans came to Massachusetts Bay in 1630, and although their hardships were terrible their success was sufficient to induce large numbers of other persons, mostly with similar religious persuasions, to follow them to New England. Almost all Colonial families sowed flax and hemp. The "hemp" was not really hemp but a species of bark, Apocynum Cannabinum, used by the American Indians. Although cotton was indigenous to the American continent, the only cotton available to the early American Colonists was imported from the Barbados. A great deal of weaving was carried on by journeymen. These were travelling craftsmen. Their title, however, does not come from the fact that they travelled but from the fact that originally the term "journey" meant a day's work. In other words, they were craftsmen who worked by the day. They were active not only in weaving, but in a greater or lesser degree, in pottery, carpentry, tailoring, and various other crafts. Sometimes, in the later frontier days, they were on their way to a permanent home. Sometimes they simply liked to travel. They were an enlivening influence throughout the Colonies and were depended upon for vivid gossip and tall tales of other places. Weaving was, in earliest America, for the most part a household industry. Most housewives could perform its simple operations but it did have a professional craft aspect. There were some families having looms but not knowing how to use them adequately. It was for such as these that the journeymen travelled from home to home, weaving various fabrics. Puritan Governor Bradford was himself a fustian weaver from Austerfield, England, which probably did a good deal for tolerant laws toward weavers in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The warp, in those days, could not be made from cotton for the technique of spinning a sufficiently strong cotton thread had not yet been developed. The commonest fabrics of the period were a mixture of linen and cotton which was variously called "fustian," "dimity," etc. Weavers who established themselves in a fixed locale were accustomed, according to J. L. Bishop in his History of flmerican Manufactures, ". . . to provide themselves with the linen warp and the new cotton each on his own account. It was then carded and spun by their wives and children and afterward woven by the head of the family. The weaver plied his loom during a part of the day, the remainder being employed in gardening or other affairs." The cloth was then carried to the nearest market for sale. During these times when the Colonial government was so concerned about the home manufacture of textiles, bounties were paid for the growing of fibres and for the weaving of fabrics. The method of non-itinerant weaving, just described, was made tremendously more efficient about 1740 by a completely new system. Textile merchants sent their agents throughout the country to supply household weavers with linen yarn and raw cotton at stated intervals and received their woven cloth in return. Thus, by approximately 1767, there were three kinds of American textile manufacture. The greatest amount was probably amateur activity. Most early American housewives could weave as well as spin. They wove fabrics for the family needs and sold any excess in the city markets. Second, were the homes that had looms but did not know how, or did not wish to use them. These were serviced by the journeymen weavers who were paid ten to twelve pence for each yard of a half-yard width of material. Third were the non-itinerant weavers, supplied with threads by central distributors, working, in effect, by consignment. About 1700, when the population of the English Colonies in America had reached 250,000, the British suddenly became aware of the danger of American manufacturing enterprise and began to fight it with intolerable laws. After they had lost the Revolutionary War thus precipitated they continued to struggle in the purely economic field by selling British goods in America for as much as 25% less than the price in London. When craftsman-inventor Eli Whitney invented his cotton gin in 1783, he influenced the course of American history, for the first three quarters of the 19th century. Before the cotton gin there had been a stronger "abolition" sentiment in the South than in the North, due to the increasing unprofitableness of slaveholding. This vanished with Whitney's invention, for when the negroes could be used for extensive cultivation and picking, their maintenance became practical. Still more important, the slave-owning plantation owners were no longer confined to the Tidewater areas for they could now use the short-fibred upland cotton which had not previously been satisfactory. With this impetus the Southern cotton interests rose rapidly to a national domination and to a conflict with Northern economy which was only terminated, and not altogether justly, by the Civil War. Eli Whitney's little machine increased cotton production in America one hundred fold in the first seven years of its existence, and made cotton one of the essential determinants of world situations unto this present day. Silk worms were nurtured in Georgia as early as 1734, but it was not until 1 8 10 that the first American silk mill was successfully operated in Mansfield, Connecticut. One of the variations on plain weaving in early Colonial times was the making of coach-lace, which was not lace at all but was a woven strip with ornamental braid in floral or geometric patterns. As in England, the printing of cotton in this country was early inspired by the beauty of India prints. American cotton prints were at first done in simple colors from rectangular wooden blocks on which the design was either raised, or cut intaglio. That some of these blocks were carved by real artists or craftsmen is indicated in the advertisement of Francis Dewing in Boston, 1716, who claimed that he ". . . engraveth and printeth Copper Plates, likewise cuts neatly in wood and Painteth Calicoes." American cotton printers in general imitated the patterns of India Prints, but after the Revolution eagles and other patriotic symbols came into fashion. In the process of printing the fabric was fastened to the floor or to a large table. The block was "inked" by pressing it onto a color pad, in the manner of a rubber stamp. The block was then applied to the material. For greater "fastness" the dye was sometimes mixed with glue. Perhaps the greatest of all American non-professional crafts was that of weaving coverlets. Rural women wove these of coarse yarns from early Colonial times far into the 19th century. They are a truly American expression. The patterns, sometimes recorded on paper, were called "drafts" and were passed around from family to family, town to town, county to county. These patterns, like folk-stories and folk-music, were gradually added-to by the more creative persons who used them until they changed beyond recognition. Each had an obscure evolution of its own. Some of the patterns have commonplace, realistic names, such as "Sunrise," "Cat Tracks," "Dog Tracks," and so on. Others are direct expressions of Americanism, such as the one called "E pluribus unum," and another known as the "Declaration of Independence." This latter one has a formal floral pattern in its central area, but the border is composed of columns, stars, and eagles holding bunches of arrows in both feet, instead of only the left as in the Seal of the United States. Also, on the coverlet, the eagles have the national shield apparently tattooed on their lower bellies instead of being borne on their breasts. On one such cover is woven: "American Independence. Declared July q., 1776. Wove in 1839. J. A. Getty." Other patriotic "drafts" are George Washington, and Anthony Wayne. Masonic emblems were also common. But the majority of these coverlet patterns are rather obscure abstractions entitled, variously: Governor's Garden, Rich Man's Fancy, Bonaparte's Retreat, Winding Leaves and Folding Win dows, Queen of England, Youth and Beauty, Muscadine Hulls, Ladies' Delight, Frenchman's Fancy, Tennessee Trouble, and Missouri Trouble. Next in prominence to the coverlet are the familiar American "samplers." These are embroidered pictures and words done on a background of coarse linen or canvas. Technically speak ing they are not samplers unless they are signed and dated, but are merely embroidered pictures. In the beginning samplers were highly intricate displays of embroidering virtuosity. It was in the 19th century that they became primers for the female young. One of the earliest and most excellent specimens, still in existence, was made by Miles Standish's daughter, Lora, in 1623. In the 19th century the sampler had become largely a device for keeping young girls out of trouble! The young ladies were handed squares of linen, needles, and colored threads and directed to work out pictures of animals, houses, and flowers, combined with religious, filial, and moral sentiments. When the family could not think of any pious sentiment the girls were often instructed to embroider the alphabet, which thousands dutifully did, sometimes in both capital and small letters. Maps were occasionally embroidered as an instruction in geography, and in the second quarter of the 19th century there occurred the celebrated morbid era when the deaths of illustrious persons or relatives were the subject of such art work. Tombs and winged angels of death poured from the needles of all the industrious maidens. The sampler was also used as a genealogical record, in the manner of the Family Bible. Deaths, births, and marriages were recorded in various appropriate colors whenever an occasion arose. The final addition to the list of characteristic American household textile crafts is the art of richly-colored and varipatterned quilt-making as it has been practiced by rural house wives from earliest times to the present. These manifold aspects of folk-art and handicraft constitute one of the richest seams of our national cultural heritage. BARCELAND, BARCELONA: A kind of silk handkerchief or neckcloth said to have been made originally at Barcelona, Spain. BARGELLO-WORK: (Flame-stitch, Hungarian-stitch) Originated in Italy, where it was worked in silks. English work waa carried out in crewels. The figure is usually a series of pointed or flame-like forms. BAUDEKIN: A rich cloth sometimes mentioned in connection with bed-hangings in the Middle Ages. Now called brocade (q.v.). BAYEUX TAPESTRY: This is not strictly a tapestry, but a specimen of early medieval embroidery with a border, top and bottom, resembling sampler work, using woolen thread of various colors on a heavy brown linen cloth. It is 214 feet long and 20 inches wide, and is a panorama representing the invasion and conquest of England by William the Conqueror in 1066. It contains the figures of over 600 men, 200 horses, 40 ships and boats, besides numerous birds, animals and other objects in 72 scenes, with Latin inscriptions giving the subjects and names. Tradition asserts it to be the work of Matilda, wife of William, and the women of her household. It is now preserved in the library at Bayeiuc, episcopal city of Normandy. BAYS, BAYES, BAIZE: A coarse woolen stuff having a long nap used chiefly for linings, curtains, etc., introduced into England from France in the 16th century. In finer texture used for clothing. BEAUVAIS TAPESTRIES: Beauvais. BED-HANGINGS: These consisted of tester, celour, curtain and bed-coverings in the Middle Ages. In the 16th century, when the bed took the form of wainscot. head and tester, supported by two posts, the hangings were limited to curtains and valances. Later, the beds were entirely covered and draped in textiles, until in the Georgian period they became again less pronounced. BERLIN WOOL WORK: A type of needlework invented in Berlin, Germany, early in the 19th century, the design being blocked and colored on canvas, and done by the crossstitch. The best Berlin-work was for furniture coverings in flower and conventionalized designs. The so-called zephyr wool, a fine dyed worsted, gave the best results, but silk, chenille and beads were also used. This work was very popular here, also in England, following the decline of the sampler in the Victorian period. BLEACHING: This is the process of whitening textile fibers and fabrics by exposure to the sun and weather, as it was practised before the Christian era, or by treatment with chemicals. In the 18th century a bleaching solution of potash and lye was used and in 1785 the powerful bleaching quality of chlorine was discovered, since which time various other bleaching processes have been discovered. BOBBIN LACE: The name is derived from the bone bobbin used, in distinction from the needlepoint lace. This form of lace-making was introduced into England in the last half of the 16th century and in the time of Queen Anne had become a prominent industry. It was first made in this country at Ipswich, Massachusetts, in the 18th century by workmen from England. BOMBASINE (also Spelled BOMBAZEEN): A twilled or corded dress material composed of silk and worsted. In black, much used for mourning. .BROADCLOTH: A fine woolen double-width cloth with a smooth-finished surface. BROCADE: The term, derived from the Spanish broche, meaning the pointed bobbin of the high-warp loom, originally meant the combination of bobbin and shuttle effects. The pattern is woven over a shuttle fabric during the process of weaving, thus bringing the design into relief. Brocades were used for bedhangings and for the upholstery of chairs in England in the 17th and 18th centuries. BROCATEL: A coarse brocade of linen, chiefly used for tapestry effects in wall hangings. BUCKRAM: At first a fine linen or cotton fabric; later, stiffened with gum or paste. CALICO: A somewhat coarse cotton fabric. It took its name from Calicut, a city on the coast of Malabar, where it was first manufactured. In Colonial times it was imported from England and the prints of Robert Peel of Lancashire were widely worn by the women of this country. PRINTING. CALIMANCO: A glazed woolen stuff of Flanders woven with satin twill and checkered in the warp, so that the checks are seen on one side only. Much used in the 18th century. CAMAK Also called Camorca, a fabric of silk and fine camel's hair in use in the 14th and 15th centuries. CAMBLET: (Or CAMLET) A stuff originally of silk and camel's hair, popular in the 18th century for bed-hangings and upholstery. Later, made of silk and wool. CAMBRIC: A very fine, thin linen. CANVAS: Stout, heavy cloth woven in the same way as linen, usually of unbleached cotton or of flax, sometimes of jute. CARDING: The process of cleaning cotton of any foreign substances after "ginning," and to reduce it to a ribbon of thin fleece to be run through the drawing and roving machines into a thread-like form before it is wound on the bobbin. CARPETS: Carpets probably originated in Persia where they were for centuries handwoven, both as carpets and rugs. The art spread eastward through India and China and westward through Turkey in Asia. Early importations into Europe were from Asia Minor, which gave the name Turkeywork (q.v.) to the product, and those made in England and in France in the 17 th century of hand-knotted pile went by the name of Turkey-work. By the middle of the 18th century the making of pile carpets had become an important English industry. It received a great stimulus by the influx of French Huguenot carpet-weavers. In England, during early times, the word "carpet" was applied to the coverings of beds, tables, cupboards, etc., and the same practice was followed in this country. It was not until the middle of the 18th century that the word was applied to floor coverings. The first factory in this country for the manufacture of yarn carpets was started at Philadelphia, late in the 18th century. Axminister Carpets. Originally made at Axminster, England. The texture was chenille, soft and very agreeable, resembling Smyrna rugs, and the patterns were usually of pronounced Baroque or Rococo design. Carpet-making at Axininster began about the middle of the 18th century and continued actively for nearly one hundred years. Brussels Carpets. In the 18th century Brussels was the leading carpet-producing center in Europe, but in England carpet factories at Axininster and Wilton captured the English market. Brussels carpets are made with the velvet weave uncut, applied to floor coverings. The patterns follow French designs. They are woven usually the width of the Flemish ell (27 inches). Embroidered Carpets. A name given to a type of carpet of domestic make in this country early in the 19th century. A description of one made by Lucetta Smart of Rumney, New Hampshire, in size 86 by 58 inches, states that it is made of two strips of heavy woolen blanketing sewn together and on this ground the design is worked in a curious kind of chain stitch. The border shows a flowering vine, the field a woven basket from which aris6s a tree, amidst which disport birds. The colors are grey-green, three shades of blue, browns and reds varying in hue. It is quite probable that the so-called embroidered carpet was a forerunner of the hooked rug, a type of floor covering more quickly made, yet durable. Kidderminster Carpets. Carpet-making was first established at Kidderminster, England, during first half of the 18th century. The product was a two-ply ingrain carpet showing warp and pile on each side, and reversible. Wilton Carpets. These were first made at Wilton, England, in the 18th century in imitation of the velvet weave of Brussels carpets, but with the loops cut. The English patterns were largely Oriental and average much better than those of Brussels. Of the Wilton products of the 19th century the finest were of lamb's wool only, noted for its luster and long and beautiful fiber. The weaving was done by hand and only vegetable dyes were used. CARTOON: A study or design executed on strong paper and of the size to be reproduced in tapestry or other weaving. .CASTOR: Usually describes a hat, either of beaver fur or resembling it. CHAIN-STITCH: A loop-stitch. CHENILLE: A silk or worsted cord used in weaving, having short threads set at right angles, forming a velvety thread. HINA: An English weave of worsted or woolen stuff allied to serge. In Colonial times it was variously spelled "chaney," "cheney" and" cheyney. " Therewas also a reference in old inventories to" cheney satten" and "cheney taffetas ," which may have been of silk. CHINTZ: A cotton cloth, usually glazed, and printed in various colors. The name was originally applied to the printed cotton cloth from India imported into England in the 17th century. It afterwards was applied to the glazed hand-printed call, coes of European and American manu' facture. COACH LACE: Not a lace at all, but an ornamental braid used to adorn the interior of coaches. When used in Europe for coach or livery it bore the arms of noble families, or seal of a city if designed for official use, but in this country it was designed on purely ornamental lines and in various colors. COMFORTER: A bed-covering, usually of cotton and filled between the outer surfaces with loose cotton or wool and knotted at regular intervals to prevent the interlining from slipping out of place. CORDUROY: A ribbed cotton material. COTTON: A vegetable fiber, distinguished from all other fibers by the peculiar twist it possesses, which makes it exceedingly valuable for spinning. It is grown under a wider range of climatic conditions, over a greater area, and by a greater number and variety of people, and is useful for a larger number of purposes than any other fiber. Its by-products are also of great importance. The Sea Island and Egyptian long-staple cottons are among the most valuable species. The invention of the cotton gin (q.v.) by Eli Whitney in 1794 gave great impetus to the growing of cotton in this country, by the facility with which the seeds were removed from the boll by the use of that machine. In 1789 the first cotton mill in New England was started at Beverly, Massachusetts. COTTON CLOTH: Was first produced in England about 1760, and in this country by the beginning of the 19th century it had become an established industry. In Colonial times, cotton was used to some extent for home weaving. COTTON GIN: A machine for separating cotton fiber from seed, invented by Eli Whitney in 1794. Previously the work had been done by hand, a slow and tedious process. Two types of the gin are now in use-the saw gin of the Whitney type, which does very rapid work and is generally used, and the roller gin, which is much slower but is less likely to injure the fiber. It is preferred for the longstaple cottons. COTTON PRINTING: In Europe there were crude but ambitious attempts to imitate the cottons of the Orient imported in the 17th century by the East India trading companies. In France the Toile-de Jouy (q.v.) factory, near Versailles, was started in 1760 and work of good quality had been done in other parts of Europe at about the same time. In this country, a few isolated instances of cotton printing are recorded prior to the Revolution but as an industry it dates from the last quarter of the 18th century. At the turn of the century numerous establishments sprang up, particularly in New England and Pennsylvania, and the activities of these manufacturers foreshadowed the development of the enterprise which now occupies so important a part in the economic life of America. In 1803 cottons were first printed by the cylinder process, and rollers were first engraved with the design for calico printing in 1825. COUNTERPANE: (Or Counterpoint) A bed-covering first mentioned in the Elizabethan period, s&-called from being worked in square or diamond-shaped figures, or panes, derived from the Latin pannus, a piece of cloth. Before the time of Elizabeth it was known as counterpoint. COVERLETS: (French Couvre-Lit) Embroidered. Made with heavy wool yarn drawn through rather coarse homespun blanketing. They are of late 18thand early 19th-century make. Of these early American embroideries, very few are to be found at the present time. The method used was similar to that later employed in making hooked rugs. Quilted. These were made on a quilting frame. The earlier ones were usually of linen, but those of the 19th century are of cotton, as a rule. Over the lining was spread a thin layer of cotton or wool and covered with the pieced top. The pattern consisted of single, double or triple lines, diagonal or in squares, diamonds or other design, in fine running stitch, not an extraneous thing but a part of the making. They were frequently adorned with an appliqued design pieced together from bright colored fabrics. Some were quite elaborate in composition. Another method was to lay cords of soft cotton or candle wicking between the top and the lining and quilt them in by a row of stitches on each side. Either method made a most durable and comfortable bed covering. . Woven. Coverlet weaving was practiced in all of the colonies from New Hampshire to Georgia from early 18th century to the middle of the 19th. They were woven on a hand loom in two strips, usually about thirty inches wide and of the desired length, and then sewed together to make a spread. The warp was usually of white cotton or linen and the woof of colored wool, grown, spun, dyed and woven into the coverlets by the housewife. Blue and red were the favored colors, but yellow, green and brown were also used. These colors were obtained from home-made vegetable dyes and have retained their brilliancy unfaded. CRETONNE: A French substitute for chintz, heavier, and not in common use until about 1860. It is an unglazed cotton fabric, printed on one side. CREWEL-WORK: Embroidery in wool on linen. The word is derived from the German Knau2, meaning a ball of wool. This was a type of embroidery that met with great favor in England and the American colonies in the 18th century. Such work was used for curtains, cushions, bedhangings, and for table covers. It continued in popularity until well into the 19th century. CROCHET: A form of needlework, employing silk, wool or cotton and a hook or needle, and for some years in the 19th century it was the most popular of all of the various forms of fancy needlework. CROSS-STITCH: Probably the oldest stitch known for use on a woven material, formed by two stitches, crossing at right angles. CUPBOARD CLOTHS: Used in England and here in Colonial times to cover the tops of cupboards, on which it was customary to display china, pewter or glass. Frequently mentioned in inventories of the 17th century. CUSHIONS: Cases of woven stuff, leather or needlework, filled with hair, feathers or down. CUT-WORK: The forerunner of certain lace stitches and used for the decoration of household linens and clothes. It appeared in France as early as the 16th century and it is found on early English embroideries, also. DAMASK: A rich flat fabric first made in Damascus, which in the 12th century achieved a great reputation for the weaving of splendid patterned stuffs. From there the manufacture spread to Italy and it was introduced into England late in the 16th century. It is a weave with a warp satin ground with a weft satin twill or taffeta pattern, the lines of the figures contrasting sharply with the lines of the ground, causing the shifting sheen as viewed from different angles. Damask was a favorite material for upholstery throughout the 18th century. DARNICK, DORNECK, DORNICK: A coarse kind of linen fabric used generally for hangings, originally made (17th century) at Dorneck, Dutch name for Tournay. The name was also applied to a coarse variety of checkered table linen. DENIM: A cotton fabric with a twilled weave on the face side. DIMITY: A stout cotton or linen cloth used in England in the 17th century, with the name from Latin dimitum, double thread. DRAPERY: Textile cloths or fabrics used for hangings. DRESDEN WORK: A combination of lace medallions and embroidery in linen thread or colored silks, made during the 18th century. DRILL-DRILLING: A fine, heavy, twilled linen or cotton fabric of a satiny finish. DRUGGET: A coarse cloth of wool or wool mixed with silk used for wearing apparel. DUCAPE: A stout silk fabric of soft texture, sometimes woven with a stripe. Introduced into England by French refugees in 1685. DUCK: An untwilled fabric of cotton or linen, not so heavy as canvas, but used for similar purposes. DUFFEL: A coarse woolen cloth having a thick nap or frieze, originally made at Duffel, near Antwerp in Flanders. DYEING: The art of dyeing was practiced in some sort by all primitive peoples, the dyes being, derived from vegetable sources. The so-called Tyrian purple was known in the early days of the Roman Empire. It was so expensive that only the very rich could afford it and by the Middle Ages the dye had been lost to commerce. Towards the close of the Middle Ages the art of dyeing was greatly developed in northern Italy, especially at Florence. Subsequently, discoveries of new dyestufFs and the application of improved processes brought dyeing with vegetable colors into general use. It was not until 1856 that the first artificial dyestuff derived from aniline was discovered, since which time first aniline, then other colors from coal-tar have superseded the vegetable dyestuffs. Dyeing may be done in various stages of fabric manufacture, depending upon the material and the purpose for which it is to be used. DYES: From remote times to the middle of the 19th century, dyes made of vegetable coloring matter were the only dyes available. Indigo made any shade of blue; madder, all reds from pink to rose; the barks of walnut, chestnut and hickory trees gave a brown dye; and black oak and hickory made green; sumac, wild cherry, and goldenrod gave various yellows; scrub oak, black. Logwood and cochineal were also used. Alum was used for "fixing" the colors. The women of colonial times were very skillful in making and using these dyes, and the colors of the fabrics of those early days that are still in existence remain unfaded today. EMBROIDERY: The art of producing ornamental patterns by needlework on any fabric which can be sewed over. It dates from the earliest times, and arrived in Europe from the nations of the East. The greatest perfection in European embroidery came in medieval times, and the most highly appreciated examples are of English origin. The fabrics principally used in embroidery work are linen, silks, satins, velvets and flannels. The materials employed are colored worsted yarns (crewels), and silk. Some of the principal stitches are the chain or tambour-stitch, the button-hole stitch, the feather-stitch and the Berlin-work stitch. A distinct class of embroidery consists of applique or cut-work, in which designs of different materials and colors are cut out and sewed down on the surface of the fabric to be ornamented. A pattern entirely covering the underlying material, or nearly so, would be described as needlework (q.v.). ENGLISH TEXTILES: By the end of the 18th century English mechanics by their inventions had revolutionized textile manufacturing and had turned it from a hand industry to one run by power. This gave England great advantages over other manufacturing countries, and the secret of the designs of these new machines was carefully guarded. The earlier inventions of Hargreaves, Crornpton and Arkwright needed but the power loom to make them effective in a large way, and Cartwright provided that in 1785. From that day to the present time Manchester, England, has been a leader in textile production. JACQUARD LOOM: This loom, which has played so important a part in textile weaving since its invention, was perfected by Joseph Marie Jacquard of Lyons, France, about 1806. The Jacquard attachment may be applied to almost any style of loom and it is used in weaving large and complex patterns. One of the earliest used in this country was at the Northrup Woolen Mill at Roanoke, New York, in 1820. KERSEY: A coarse, smooth-faced narrow wool fabric something like broadcloth but lighter in weight, distinguished by the diagonal ribbed appearance of its upper surface, where the nap, not being raised, allows its structure to be seen. NEEDLEWORK: Needlework is a broad, general term applying to embroidery, lace, and tapestry work. In the Tudor period chairs, upholstered with satin or velvet, were frequently enriched with applied needlework. During the William and Mary and Queen Anne periods in England needlework was particularly devoted to tapestries, in which a coarse canvas ground is entirely covered by close-set stitches of wool or silk. This work was accounted the duty of the women folk in country houses in England. Many examples are today in good state of presservation. The stitch generally used is a diagonal called the tent-stitch. Grospoint and petit-point are terms used also for this work, gros-point crossing two meshes of the canvas, and petit-point, the smaller, crossing but one mesh. In general, the designs follow those for tapestries and other textiles of the periods. Crewel-work was popular, also designs in imitation of the Chinese silks, embroideries, and other textiles imported at that time from the East. Some of the most important needlework panels were those designed for wall-hangings in imitation of woven tapestry. About 1770, needlework covers for seat furniture were superseded by silks, satins and tapestry. Needlework in the American colonies was largely utilitarian, although as time passed and the conditions became somewhat easier for women, they indulged their taste for decoration and ornamentation by means of their needle. Firescreens, chair seats, bed-coverings and articles of clothing gave evidence of their skill and taste. Samplers, too, afforded work for the younger generation. NEEDLEWORK PICTURES: In England needlework pictures in imitation of tapestry were made as early as the Tudor period and they were continued until the days of the Stuarts, corresponding roughly with the years during which tapestries were produced. The subjects consisted of Biblical scenes, chiefly, although there were others of current interest. Some of the later pictures were a combination of needlework and paint. The effect of these, in many instances, approaches the grotesque. One of the finest needlework pictures in existence today is to be seen in the Cluny Museum in Paris. It is a panel in high and low relief of the 16th century, representing the story of Eden. It is truly a work of art. In this country these pictures were introduced by the Moravians, who came to Pennsylvania soon after 1700. In their schools, they taught fine white embroidery, tambour, crewel-work, and the making of pictures with a needle on silk and satin. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, this work became very popular in their district, and went under the name of Moravian-work. TAPESTRIES: Tapestry-making is weaving, and its principle is simple. Colored threads, usually of wool or silk, constitute the web, and are woven across other threads, generally of linen, which constitute the warp. A tapestry is a pictured cloth with a ribbed or rep surface woven either on a vertical, high-warp (haute lisse) or on a horizontal, low' warp (basse lisse) loom. In the former the warp is vertical and the woof horizontal; in the latter, the woof is vertical and the warp is horizontal. The high' warp tapestry was known to antiquity and in the celebrated periods of weaving in Europe the high-warp loom has been the one in use. The low-warp loom came into use in France about 1600. It is almost impossible to distinguish the difference in the product of the two methods. The weavers of the 18th century put a single red thread along the top and bottom of a tapestry woven on the low loom to distinguish it. All old tapestry, is of course, hand-woven. From very early times the inhabitants of Western Europe were renowned for their woven fabrics. The weavers at Arras are said to have begun weaving in the 9th century. Weaving was done in monasteries in France far several centuries. In the 13th century the craftsmen organized guilds and from that time tapestry weaving became an established industry. In tapestry there are four important groups; Gothic, 14th and 15th centuries; Renaissance, 16th century; Baroque, 17th century; Rococo and Classic Revival, 18th century. Before the 14th century there were primitive tapestries only. The art of tapestry-making came to Europe from the East, and in the 14th century at Paris and at Arras in Flanders designers and weavers were able, with a few colors, to manipulate threads into the strongest and liveliest contrasts of form, color and tone that can be achieved on a flat surface. France is the mother of Gothic tapestries, and Arras gained such distinction that its name became the synonym for tapestry of the finest quality. In the last quarter of the 14th century the craft of the tapestry weaver was in the most prosperous condition it knew in France in the Middle Ages. In the next century Brussels and Bruges and Tournai in Flanders took the lead under the influence of designs by Flemish and Italian artists, and by the middle of the 16th century Flemish tapestry attained a degree of perfection which has never since been surpassed. Much of the wool for the finest French and Flemish tapestries was imported from England. In return, the tapestries of Arras and Flanders were sold in England. In Italy, Ferrara, Florence, Milan and Rome were also noted for fine tapestries in that century. In the 17th century Brussels lost its leadership through haste and excessive production, and the tapestries woven at the Gobelins' (q.v.) factory in Paris, fostered by King Louis XIV, took first place before the end of the century, and in England tapestries were produced at the Mortlake factory, founded in 1619 by Sir Francis Crane, which were of the highest order of merit. The best tapestries of the 18th century were those of Beauvais (q.v.) but the high standards of the early tapestries had degenerated. The difference is mainly of texture, though also caused by the different character of the designs and by the attempt to use too many shades of coloring. Since the 18th century no really great tapestries have been made. Gothic and 18th-century tapestries have narrow borders or none; Renaissance and Baroque tapestries have wide borders, some of them of great beauty. Gothic tapestries excel in reds; Renaissance in whites and golden yellow; Baroque in blues; Rococo in rose; while Classic Revival colors are weak and pale. The most important distinguishing feature of old tapestries is the open slits which separate the different parts of the design, different in this respect from damasks, brocades and other weaves. In the prominent museums in this country and in Europe, and in some private collections too, there are to be seen many of those early masterpieces of woven art. A great many have been destroyed by the ravages of time and by the wilful purpose of man, especially in France during the time of the French Revolution. Those tapestries that survive well deserve the care and admiration now bestowed upon them. American Tapestries. The first tapestry produced in America was woven on a small loom in New York in 1893 by a Frenchman. Since that time other looms of the low-warp pattern have been set up, workmen obtained from abroad, and some creditable copies of old tapestries have been made. Aubusson Tapestries. Weaving of tapestry was established here before the 17th century, and as early as 1637 had more than two thousand workers on low-warp looms. The industry was greatly injured by the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 and by the hard times that prevailed in France in the last decade of the 17th century. In 1731, the French Government assisted by sending a dyer and a designer from the Gobelin factory; prosperity began anew, and the best period of tapestry weaving in Aubusson is from 1740 to 1790. Distinguishing features of the early product are the dazzling whites and the loose texture.. Beauvais Tapestries. This famous factory was founded in 1664. It was a step in the campaign that transferred the tapestry supremacy from Flanders to France. The factory here produced tapestries for the general public, while the Gobelin factory was devoted to work for state purposes. Compared with those made at Gobelins' the Beauvais tapestries were inexpensive. In the 18th century, largely because of the designs of the artist Boucher, the work of Beauvais is comparable with the best tapestries of the earlier centuries. English Tapestries. The first English factory of any continuity appears to have been the Sheldon Looms, established at Barchester in Warwickshire by William Sheldon about the middle of the 16th century. The tapestries produced there compare favorably with the finest contemporary Flemish weavings. Some of these consisted of large tapestry maps of English counties. The great name in the history of tapestry-making in England is Mortlake in Surrey County in the 17th century. From 1620 to 1636 these tapestries, made under Sir Francis Crane by expert weavers from Flanders, rival those of the later Gobelins and surpass those of Brussels of the period. Sir Francis Crane died in 1636 and the establishment became known as "The King's Works." The factory lost royal support in the troubled times of the reign of Charles I and, after struggling through the times of the Commonwealth and the Restoration, finally passed out of existence in the reign of Queen Anne. There were also some other minor factories in England during this period, and one in Ireland. Several are of record during the 18th century, Lambeth, Fulham and Soho. Gobelin Tapestries. The history of Gobelins begins with the establishment on the banks of the Bievre river in Paris of a dye factory, by Jean and Philibert Gobelin, brothers, at the end of the 15th century. In the following century they added to their dyework a tapestry manufactory. In 1662, the factory attracted the attention of Colbert, French finance minister, who purchased the works, and in 1664 the King, Louis XIV, established it as a royal manufactory under the direction of Charles Le Brun, the great master of decorative art of that period, who with a great number of artists and artisans brought the production of tapestry to a high state of perfection in design and weave. From that time the Gobelins have been the most artistic tapestries anywhere produced. The finest set was the History of the King (Louis XIV), a grand historical document. The set numbered fourteen hangings. The History of Alexander in eleven hangings is another famous set. During the 18th century the Gobelin tapestries failed to reach the high standards of the earlier work. The Savonnerie (q.v.), an establishment founded by Henry IV for velvet pile carpets and hangings, was combined with Gobelins' in Rhenish Tapestries. Along the banks of the Rhine from Basle to Mayence, there existed through the entire 15th century a flourishing industry of tapestry weaving. The production was small, the work was quite individual, and in type different from the Flemish tapestries df the same period. Russian Tapestries. Peter the Great established the Imperial Tapestry Factory at St. Petersburg in 1716 with French weavers from Beauvais. Some notable tapestries were made there but the factory was discontinued in 1859. Spanish Tapestries. The Royal Tapestry Factory was established in Madrid in 1720 and is still in operation. The best were those woven in the last quarter of the 18th century from designs by Goya. TAPESTRY FURNITURE COVERING As furniture became much more diversified in the 18th century, tapestry coverings became common. France set the example and most of these coverings were made at Beauvais on low-warp looms and at the Gobelin works. Aubusson also produced many attractive sets. Tapestry coverings all in silk are much inferior to those that have the proper proportion of wool. TEXTILE PRINTING: In printing fabrics the color is stamped on from an engraved block or roller. The process, in one form or another, can be traced back to remote times. In the 17th century the industry was revived, and in 1676 textile printing was introduced into England by a French refugee who opened an establishment on the Thames River near Richmond. In the last half of the 18th century the art was brought to a high state of perfection in France, especially at the Toile-de Jouy factory (q.v.) of Oberkampf. The first factory for printing fabrics in America was started in 1774 at Kensington, near Philadelphia, by John Hewson, an Englishman who had gained his knowledge of the business in England. Although the industry grew rapidly in this country American prints have never quite reached parity with those from abroad. At the end of the 18th century metal rollers took the place of wooden blocks and the modern machine period had begun. The printing of woolen and silk cloths is similar to that of cotton or linen except that the woolen cloth requires more preparation and the silk cloth less. TIFFANY: The term for transparent silk, gauze muslin or cobweb lawn, 17th century. TOILE-DE JOUY: French chintz manufactured at Jouyen Josas in the Bievre valley near Paris, in a factory established in 1760 by Christophe-PhilippeOberkampf (17381815). The chintzes were printed with designs by master artists of the period, of whom Jean Baptiste Huet from 1773 to 1811 was the most prominent, and they became very popular in France, and later in England. Colors used were sepia, mauve, blue, grey, green, black and madder red. After the death of Oberkampf the factory gradually dwindled in importance and in 1843 it was torn down. TOILINETTE: A cloth for waistcoats with weft of woolen yarn and warp of cotton and silk. Name from the French toilinet, in turn from toile, a canvas. Tow The short fibers of flax made into a heavy thread, used for burlaps and coarse clothing stuff, and, when woven, called tow cloth. TURKEY-WORK: A home product of Colonial times in this country, also imported from England, made in imitation of Oriental pile rugs by threading woolen yarns through a coarse cloth of open texture (canvas or burlap) then knotting and cutting the ends. It became very popular for chair coverings and table and cupboard cloths. UPHOLSTERY: The earliest forms of upholstering in England were state canopies and beds. A diversity of material was employed, plain and embroidered velvet, satin, tapestry, needlework, and even leather was used. Later, chintz and Indian calicoes came into favor. In the 17th century, fringes became an important feature of upholstery and continued in use until the end of the 18th century. Metal fringes and tasseled silk floss fringes were introduced from France and Italy during the Restoration and afterwards copied in England. Allusions to upholstery are numerous in the 18th century in all of the cabinet-makers' books of the period, and the upholsters' trade reached its zenith at that time. In this country, chair seats were covered early and by the end of the 17th century upholstered furniture was comparatively common. During the 18th century the use of upholstery in general paralleled its use in England. VALANCE: A hanging drapery for beds, windows, etc. VELVET: (French, Velours) A silk fabric with a short, close, soft nap. It is believed that the first velvet was made in China, but the early centers of velvet-making in Europe were the cities of Lucca, Genoa and Florence in Italy. Later Venetian velvets became noted, and the art was taken up in the Low Countries. After the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, French silk weavers migrated to England, and plain and figured velvets were made at Spitalfields, though not equal to Italian velvets. Velvets were then much used for hangings, but in the 18th century velvet lost favor, being replaced by lighter fabrics. A cheaper product known as Utrecht-velvet, consisting of worsted mohair, or of mohair and cotton, was also used for upholstery and hangings. The pile of modern velvets is produced by extra warps that loop over wires, which are withdrawn after the passage of the binding weft. So-called velvet carpets such as Wilton (q.v.) are made by the use of the velvet weave applied to floor coverings of wool. WEAVING: Weaving is the art of making cloth on a loom (q.v.). There are three fundamental weaves-plain, twill and satin. Others, such as taffeta, damasks, brocades and velvets are merely variations or complications of these three. For many centuries weaving was carried on as a household industry with little or no change in the style of the loom or in the methods employed, and though the loom was remarkably simple, even crude, the operators produced fabrics that have never been excelled in fineness of texture, even at this later day. The materials in early use in this country for weaving were wool, flax and hemp. Cotton came later. The periods just before and following the Revolutionary War are considered the high spots in American home-weaving. It was not until the latter half of the 19th century that all of the processes connected with weaving were grouped together in one establishment, the mill. WOOL: Next to cotton, wool is the most extensively used of all fibers. A pound of the finest wool will yield nearly 100 miles of thread. Although the typical wool is produced by sheep, goat's hair furnishes a long, fine silky material, much used in making beautiful textile fabrics. The angora goat yields mohair, the alpaca goat a fiber known as alpaca, and the wool made from the cashmere (kashmir) goat of India is said to be the most costly of all wools. The fine soft hair of the camel approximates sheep's wool in its structure. The wool grown in this country was much improved in quality early in the 19th century by importation of large numbers of merino sheep from Spain, where cross-breeding had been carried on scientifically for generations.

Prehistoric development

Ancient textiles and clothing

Ancient Near East

Ancient India

Ancient China

Ancient Japan

The textile trade in the ancient world

Classical antiquity

Iron age Europe

Medieval clothing and textiles

Byzantium

Early medieval Europe

High middle ages and the rise of fashion

Renaissance and early modern period

Renaissance Europe

Early Modern Europe

External links

Notes

Bibliography