Textiles in America, 1650-1870

Reader Reviews
Are you an amateur historian or a researcher of the American textile industry prior to 1870? If you are, then this book is for you! Author Florence Montgomery, has done an outstanding job of writing a book (that was initially published in 1984), that is a definitive study of textiles in early America. Montgomery, begins by looking at the furnishing practices in England and America by covering wash drawings; striped upholstery material to complement neoclassical furniture; figured silk and satin; scrolled cornices and pleated and fringed valances; draped ceilings and continuous window pelmet; and, red curtains with deep fringed lambrequins and continuous cornice. Then, the author discusses bed hangings, by focusing on the textile material used in ladies bedrooms during the 1650s; King Louis the XIV's royal bedroom; state beds in the 1760s; Thomas Chippendale beds showing side and foot curtains; Gothick beds with a flat tester; curtains made out of Genova velvet with a satin or superfine cloth and a suitable border being worked around them on an embroidery of gold; dome beds decorated with calico or silk, an exterior green and the linings yellow; French beds where the tester with the dome is attached to the wall, and supports the curtains, which draw round the bedstead, which is in the form of a sofa; and, field beds, with plain or printed calicoes, where the border is cut out in black Manchester velvet and sewed on. Next, she looks at the textile material that window curtains were made of during the seventeenth- and eighteenth century, by focusing on a stiff upholstered valance edged and scrolled with tape; fringed and ruffled valance that conceals the pulleys and cords ending in tassels by which it was drawn; cornices, curtains and drapery for drawing room windows; valances made of lemon colored silk with embroidered muslin curtains and fine spotted muslin hung over a gilt dart; and, continued drapery that are suitable to Venetian, Bow, or large Windows. The author then explains what type of upholstery was used to cover furniture, by zeroing in on the use of red velvet; leather; English Turkey; crewel embroidery in rose, green, blue and brown; and, the use of leafy central medallion and floral trails. She continues by exploring the types of textiles used for the period rooms in America. Then, the author presents 64 pages of colored plates showing every textile from swatches- of calmuc to moreen. Finally, she introduces you to the dictionary, which covers every cloth from adatais to zanella. If I've learned anything from this most excellent book, is that textiles played a very important part in the lives of Americans colonists. But surprisingly, I also learned that estate inventories of the period indicated that bedding and bed curtains were among the most highly valued possessions, exceeded in value only by land, buildings, and, in rare occasions, wrought silver.


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