YARD
GOOD'S LANGUAGE [terms]
I am currently in
search of the meaning of the following terms : Hudson
Bay strouds (blue, green, white).
I have looked up
the textile terms (though not all were listed) from list
in "Textiles in America: 1650-1870" by
Florence M. Montgomery (ISBN 0393017036). All page
number references are to this book.
Romal
handkerchiefs: page 333 ROMAL (rumal) "A
handkerchief imported from India; a cover or
decorative piece. Silk, cotton, and Serunge romals were
prohibited in England at the end of the 17th century.
"... Benjamin
Wister ordered the following romals from London in 1789:
40 pieces India cotton Romals, blue and white--if at or
under 11/
Send double the
Quantity 30 pieces do do do red mixt--if at or under 11/
Send 2/3rds more 10 pieces do do do large red Check'd 8
pieces best Red Silk Pullicat Romals 18 pieces Lungee
narrow Stripd do in 16 a piece. Send none but red
Striped.
"A pattern
book containng a fascinating variety of 95 handkerchief
swatches, mounted on paper watermarked "London
1787," is preserved in the Cooper-Hewitt Museum.
The samples range from sturdy checked linens
to delicate muslins, some with additions of silk and
others entirely of silk. Although not identified by
place of manufacture, the silk and cotton romals, lungis
(Fig. D-87), pullicates, and lustring silk handkerchiefs
were probably imported from India for the English
market."
"Barnagore":
not listed
"Britania": page 177 BRITANNIAS (bretagnes)
"Linen fabric of plain weave made in Britanny
during the 18th century. It was much favored for shirts
because of its fine quality. ..." "Madrass":
cotton cloth (in 1816, not 1999!): page 287 MADRAS
"Goods exported from that part of India. In a
"Providence Gazette" advertisement from
February to April 1791, [India sales at the Store of E.
H. Derby, Esq.,] in Salem are divided into Bengal and
Madras goods. For the latter he lists the following:
Ginghams, Blue Cotton Handkerchiefs Long Cloths of a
superior Quality, suitable for Shirting Madras Patches,
beautifully figured Camboys, or blue and white striped
Cottons Moreas, or plain white Cloths Madras Cambricks
Ditto handkerchiefs with borders
Book Muslins,
Ditton handkerchiefs, a great variety "In the 1830s
and 1840s, "large, bright-coloured handkerchiefs,
of silk warp and cotton woof, which were formerly
exported from Madras, and much used by the
negroes in the West Indies as head-dresses" were
know by the name of "Madras". More recently
the name has been applied to bright checked and plaid
cotton cloth imorted from India for men's jackets and
trousers and
women's dresses and skirts. The dyes used were not
entirely fast, causing this material to be called
bleeding madras."
BLANKET
"A
white woolen cloth used for bed covers, petticoats, and
heavy outer garments. Some were twilled and some were
plain weave. Postlethwayt [Postlethwayt, Malachy.
"The Universal Dictionary of Trade and Commerce
Translated", from the French of the Celebrated
Monsieur Savory ... with "Large Additions". 2
vols. London: J.&P. Knapton, 1751-55] describes
their ornamentation for bed covers: In order to adorn
them, they work
stripes of blue or red wool at each end, and a crown at
each corner; with this difference, however, that the
stripes are worked in the loom; and the crowns are
worked with the needle, after the blankets are finished,
and before they are sent to the fuller."
"The
important trade in woolens with the North American
Indians and the exact colors and stripes demanded by
them are specified in a 1714 letter from James Logan to
Edward Hackett: ... 3rdly. Striped Blankets that are
white like other Blankets only towards the ends they
have generally four broad Stripes as each 2 red and 2
blue or black ... they are sold by ye piece containing
15 blankets for about 3 lbs 10/. [Kidd, Kenneth E.
"Cloth Trade and the Indians of the Northeast
during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries."
Toronto: Royal Ontario Museum Annual, 1961. p. 43:
Letters are cited from the James Logan Papers in the
Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, in
particular from Logan's letter book, 1712-15, with
reference to woolens imported for trade with the
Indians.]"
"An order
dated November 28, 1805, from Hudson's Bay House,
London, is indicative of the magnitude of blanket
production:
"Gentlemen,
"Your Proposals have been received and acceded to
... You will be pleased to send ... as early in March as
possible, the whole Order to be delivered to our Packers
on or before the 23rd of April next without
fail ... Please to observe wherever the Pieces are
striped it means all thro' the Piece.
Blankettings: 4
Ps. Red striped 20 " Green do
39 " Red & Green do
12 " Red striped,
Broader, nearly as broad as two stripes of the above.
Duffels: 2 Ps.
White 11 " White, Red & Blue Striped
11 " " " & Yellow do
1 Point 125 pairs
1-1/2 " 142 "
2 " 151 "
2-1/2 " 225 "
3 " 418 "
3-1/2 " 21 "
4 " 15 "
2-1/2 " 17 " striped Red
2-1/2 " 17 " " Blue
2-1/2 " 16 " " Blue, Red, &
Yellow"
(Plummer & Early*, p. 66)"
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*Plummer, Alfred,
and Richard E. Early. "The Blanket Makers,
1669-1969". London: Routledge & Kegan Paul,
1969. Full references from the bibliography (which is
found on pages 384 through 412) in the hopes that
someone may come across one of the relevant books so we
can mine them for even more information.
CALICO pages
184-185
"Cotton cloth of many grades and varieties first
made in India and later in the West. Thomas Sheraton
gives a broad definition in his
"Encyclopedia", 1804-7: In commerce a sort of
cloth resembling linens made of cotton. ... Calicoes are
of different kinds, plain, printed, stained, dyed,
chintz, muslins, and the like, all included under the
general denomination of "calicoes". ..."
Thus, "furniture calico" is simply
heavier-weight calico suitable for furnishings.
Nuns (Nuno)
thread: my hypothesis is that Nun's thread is fine,
strong linen thread suitable for lace-making (there are
even varieties of lace that have been referred to as
Nun's Lace) and also for sewing.
embossed serge;
embossed blankets; embossed robes: EMBOSSING pages
231-235 [yet another large entry, with illustrations, so
exerpts are in order]
"The term may
refer to either (1) the process of impressing patterns
on worsted cloth, particularly camlet, to imitate
expensive silk damasks, or (2) printing colored patterns
on white serge or flannel."
Hessing canvas:
HESSIAN (hessen) page 258 "A coarse hempen cloth,
the name is most probably indicative of its origin"
(Beck). Hessian and forfars were two qualities of the
commonest unbleached sheeting and principally used for
packages (Perkins).
"Dutch Barras
and Hessens Canvas" are listed under linen goods in
the 1660 London Book of Rates (Beck). "Barris and
Hessins" are specified in Willing and Shippens's
1730-34 ledger (p.141). In Joshua Rowland
Fisher's order of 1767 from Philidelphia, both brown and
white, or unbleached and bleached, "Hessons"
were listed with sailcloth, Russia sheeting, osnaburg,
dowlas, and other coarse cloths.
None-so-pretties
(a kind of gartering, but what did it *look* like?):
NONE-SO-PRETTY page 310 - A term applied generally to
tapes or ribbons. Willing and Shippen of Philadelphia
ordered them by the gross in the 1730s, and Samuel
Rowland Fisher recoreded in his 1767/68 journal "20
doz Nonso-prettys--no Greens nor Yellows." In
Boston, "None-so-Pretty Tapes" were offered in
1771, as were, in the following year, "Blue &
white, Red & white, Green & white Furniture
checks with None-so-Prettys to match." In 1886 a
Rhode Island store dating from the eighteenth century
had an old box labeled "None-so-Prettys" that
contained "rolls of strong brown linen braid about
three-quarters of an inch wide, with little woven
figures, white, red, or black dots or diamonds"
(Earle, _Costume_, pp. 173-74). Perkins (1833) lists
among bindings, "Blue Diamon, otherwise
None-so-Pretty."
London garters;
Scotch garters: GARTERING page 246 Tape or braid ties
around the calf of the leg to support stockings. Similar
to coach lace and furniture braids and tapes. In 1736
Mary Alexander of New York received from Peter Collinson
in London twenty-one samples of woolen tapes, some mixed
with linen or a little silk, woven in plain or twill
weave in bright colors (see Pl. D-10 [this is a color
plate])
Bed lace; tinsel
lace: not listed
Orris lace: ORRICE
(orris) page 312 - A kind of heavy ribbon or gimp
trimming, sometimes woven with gold and
silver, and used in the 17th and 18th centuries for
trimming dresses and furnishings. The work later
included "nearly every description of upholstery
galloons," especially those used for saddle and
coach trimmings (Beck). Willing and Shippen imported
"Orrice and worst'd Raines" (horse reins?) in
the 1730s.
Samples of
mid-18th century brilliant red and green silk orrice in
various widths, which the Lord Chamberlain purchased
from Tempest Hey, silk-lace maker, are reversible silk
ribbons with lozenge patterns in weft floats (Public
Record Office LC9/267). ...
shoe binding:
BINDING page 168 - A tape or braid. Perkins's 1833
_Treatise on Haberdashery and Hosiery_
lists: Binding, chintz--is used for binding white dimity
and printed furnitures; and the following for binding
bed-ticks and mattresses, viz. Blue striped, Do.
Diamond, otherwise None-so-Pretty Common Quality,
otherwise worsted binding Venetian--is a fine kind of
worsted binding used as the binders of Venetian blinds.
(see also QUALITY)
QUALITY page 330 -
A binding tape made of worsted, silk, or cotton in
several grades. In the nineteenth century, it was used
especially for carpet binding. James Beekman's 1769
order to Bristol is typical: 26 gross fine worsted
Quality at 6/6. Vizt. 6 black, 2 red, 1 pinck, 1
Scarlet, 4 browns, 1 yellow, 6 dark blue, 2 light blue,
2 Saxon green, 1 dark green 33 gross fine shoe quality
at 4/9. Vizt. 8 black, 8 cloth blues, 1 light blue, 1
Saxon blue, 1 Saxon green, 1 yellow, 2 pinck, 1 Scarlet,
2 green, 8 dark sorted cloth colours [2:875.]
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