. Bulletin - United States National Museum. Science. Family at Tea Dutch, mid-18th century {Courtesy of Colonial ]Villiamsburg.) Figure 25.—The two floor coverings in this watercolor are a very large Oriental carpet and, on top of it, a small striped carpet with fringed ends. For this family scene, the chairs have been moved from their usual location against the wall to in front of the fireplace where a table with the tea equipage has been placed. immediately prior to it. Bedside carpets may even have been made of straw; but whatever the material, they served a useful purpose in 18th-century A
. Bulletin - United States National Museum. Science. Family at Tea Dutch, mid-18th century {Courtesy of Colonial ]Villiamsburg.) Figure 25.—The two floor coverings in this watercolor are a very large Oriental carpet and, on top of it, a small striped carpet with fringed ends. For this family scene, the chairs have been moved from their usual location against the wall to in front of the fireplace where a table with the tea equipage has been placed. immediately prior to it. Bedside carpets may even have been made of straw; but whatever the material, they served a useful purpose in 18th-century American houses where, as Moreau de Saint Mery reported, "rooms are ; Hearths were seldom associated with floor coverings in this country during the 18th century. According to the sources studied, fireplace or hearthrugs seem not to have appeared on the American market much before 1799. In that year "an assortment of hearth Rugs" was offered for sale by Andrew S. Norwood, according to an advertisement in the New-York Gazette and General Advertiser of May 22. Further evidence associating hearthrugs with the 19th century is provided by Jefferson's inventory of the Presidential Mansion taken in 1809. In the President's sitting room there was "1 elegant Brussels carpet and a fire ; This type of underfoot furnishing ap- parently was used in Europe in the 18th century because what seems to be a hearthrug appears in a Dutch watercolor of the mid-18th century (fig. 25). A small, horizontally striped carpet, possibly of list, though more likely woven of wool, is shown placed in front of the fireplace and on top of a room-size Oriental. Here the family gathered for tea, and to have their portrait painted. The facts that the fire- PAPER 5 9 : FLOOR COVERINGS IN 1 8TH-CENTURY AMERICA 53. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these ill
Size: 1752px × 1426px
Photo credit: © Book Worm / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookauthorun, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectscience
