What's in a name? The Changing Names of our Historic Rags.

Present day fabric and textile names are confusing at best: jean, denim, percale, ramie, but even more enigmatic are fabric names from the past. Not only have we ceased to use many textile names but the common fabrics of the 18th and 19th century do not exist in our range of available textiles today. So, why should we be expected to know silly names such as Calamanco, linsey-woolsey, fustian, diaper, and dimity? The only real importance these names have for us is the ability to communicate and understand the material culture of the past. And that becomes very important when we wish to understand who produced certain fabrics, who used certain fabrics and how the value of different fabrics set the status of material wealth in households in Colonial American, in Civil War America, and in depression America.

Until textile production of everyday fabrics became centralized by water and steam power in large factories (1840's to 1870's)^[1], the production of fabrics was both labor intensive and craft oriented Textiles and clothing were treasured and were not part of a disposable culture. For that reason, valued textiles were inventoried, passed down through families and were a visual part of a families wealth^[2]. Often it is the fancier bedding and clothing textiles that were that have survived. Good examples exist from every period of American settlement, 1640's to 1900.

Recently, antique collectors and those interested in historic restoration have value many of these textiles. It is therefore important to explore what the original owners of these textiles called them, how they were used and who produced them. Unfortunately, modern myths surrounding historic textiles are so prevalent that the original names are not even part of today's textile vocabulary.

The 17th and 18th century had an abundance of luxurious and expensive textiles. And a common mistake is to equate the idea of "expensive" with non-existent. This misconception has been a hindrance to proper textile identification. For example, there is a widely held myth that cotton was absent from households of the 17th and 18th century. In reality this is a misinterpretation of the value of cotton goods during that period of time. Long Islanders' and coastal Connecticut communities record many many cotton fabrics, distinguished from silk, linen, woolen and worsted, in their inventories dating from 1640 to 1800^[3].

Bedding textiles were usually the most valued interior fabrics. Included in the inventories are the bed hangings (curtains and valances), coverlets, counterpanes, quilts, and blankets, along with the beds ( the  bedstead is the wooden furniture), bolsters, pillows and sheets. Today, the glazed quilted bedspreads in a single color are some of the most treasured survivors from the 18th and early 19th century.  These "whole cloth" quilts have been mistaken called "linsey-woolsey's" by the modern antique community and that misnomer has led to a complete misunderstanding of what they are, who made them, of what value they held during their period.

In examining these magnificent whole cloth quilts the common construction is remarkably consistent.^[4] The top fabric is a "fine” to "medium" worsted wool in plain weave or in a combination plain and twill weave (Calamanco)^[5]. They have wool batting, and all but one examined, had a coarse plain weave woolen bottom cloth^[6]. The one exception had a worsted top and bottom and was glazed both top and bottom; a truly magnificent example.

The beauty of the worsted was enhanced by making the cloth extremely shiny by glazing. Glazing was accomplished by combination of heat, and pressure, and sometimes the addition of a starch base. (Some have suggested protein based glazes recipes for starch glazes for the period seem more prevalent.^[7]) Historic starch glazes were water sensitive (and possibly time sensitive). Many of these quilts no longer exhibit the heavy glaze they owners saw.

Quilting patterns used in these pieces reflect the decorative styles which changed over the period 1725 to 1820, the peak time of their popularity as high style bedspreads..

Calamanco or worsted whole cloth quilts contain NO LINEN.  Linen certainly was being used during the same period but generally for other types of fabrics. The similarity between the glazed worsted and linen cloth is that they both can "Shine". Linen does shine when pressed and to the modern antique community, the glazing on these quilts may have confused those without microscopes.

Linsey-woolsey is in fact a completely different fabric. Linsey-woolsey is a plain weave (one over one) fabric in which the warp threads are linen or tow^[8] and the filling threads - the ones that go back and forth- are woolen. Woolen cannot be glazed successfully and in general the coarseness of linsey-woolsey - ranging from 28 to 44 ends and pick makes it not generally unquiltable. In addition to these details, the use of worsteds for upholstery, meaning bed hangings, draperies, and chair  coverings was a part of the 17th and 18th century  fabric  style. Calamancoes, baize, harateen, camblet, to name a few were used for bed hangings and draperies. Linsey-woolsey was generally a clothing fabric although some light blankets are also constructed of linsey-woolsey. This name however, does not appear as frequently in the past as it does in the present.

The social status of having worsted and glazed worsted fabrics on ones bed is different than having Linsey-woolsey as the top most covering for a bed. Historically the first carries a higher status than the later. So by misnaming the quilts today we misunderstand the importance of certain textiles, where they were used, by whom and how they were procured. The manufacturing of worsted was rarely done in the home and glazing also was not a home process.  Trained weavers in the Colonies and Europe produced worsted for middle and wealthy families. The woolen backing cloths however, could very well have been the product of home weavers.