usually as a mark of rank rather than as an item of 

 household furnishing. Until they came into general 

 use as floor coverings in the 18th century, Oriental 

 carpets and rugs were used as they had been since 

 their introduction into Europe from the Near East 

 in the 15th and 16th centuries — as covers for tables, 

 beds, and cupboards, and as hangings on walls and 

 at windows.' According to 17th-century American 

 wills and inventories, the colonists adhered to this 

 practice whether they lived in Massachusetts and 

 had a "carpitt and tabell" as listed in a 1644 in- 

 ventory, or in Virginia and had a "drawing [i.e., draw- 

 top] table and Turkey Carpet" as recorded in a 1673 

 will.- Oriental rugs and carpets continued to be used 

 by the colonists in these ways well into the 18th 

 century. 



Types of Floor Coverings 



ORIENTAL 



Oriental carpets, occasionally referred to as Persians, 

 were called "Turkey" carpets from their place of 

 origin or export. The homemade imitations also 

 were known as "Turkey" or "Turkey-work" carpets. 

 Whether called Oriental or Turkey, the carpets were 

 used as table covers by persons of importance and 

 wealth in the colonies until almost the middle of the 

 18th century. This is shown in two paintings, 

 George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne, and his Wife and Family 

 (fig. 10), painted in 1729 by John Smibert, and Portrait 

 of Isaac Royall and Family (fig. 2), done in 1741 by 

 Robert Feke. In both portraits the sitters are grouped 

 about a table covered with an Oriental carpet.^ 

 The fact that such carpets were recorded in oil 

 .suggests not only that they were highly valued and 



1 W. G. Thompson, "Carpets," rev. by G. F. Wingfield Digby 

 in The Dictionary of English Furniture, edit. Percy Macquoid and 

 Ralph Edwards (rev. ed.; London: Country Life, Ltd., 1954), 

 vol. 1, pp. 203-204; VViLHELM VON Bode and Ernst Kuhnel, 

 Antique Rugs from the Near East, transl. Charles G. Ellis (rev. 

 ed.; Berlin: Klinkhardt and Bicrmann. 19,58), figs. 34-35 

 and pp. 52-56. 



2 Inventory of Mrs. Joanna Cummins. Salem, Mar. 17, 1844. 

 In Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Mas- 

 sachusetts, edit. George Francis Dow (Salem: The Essex Insti- 

 tute, 1911-1921), vol. 1, pp. 66-67; Will of Mrs. Elizabeth 

 Butler, May 1 7, 1673, on record at Essex Court House. In \V. G. 

 Standard, "Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents," The Virginia 

 Magazine of History and Biography (July 1895), vol. 3, p. 64. 



'Joseph V. McMullan, "The Turkey Carpet in Early 

 America," Antiques (March 19.54), vol. 65, p. 221. 



that ownership of them was considered of importance, 

 but also that their use as table covers was appropriate 

 as well as in fashion at the time. 



In fact, the word carpet was defined as "a Covering 

 for the Table" in the 1720s and 1730s according to 

 English dictionaries such as Nathan Bailey's Universal 

 Etymological Dictionary. It was only in subsequent 

 editions that the added meaning of carpet appeared 

 as "a Covering for a Table, Passage, or Floor." 

 This distinction in function was being made in the 

 colonies at about the same time and is indicated by the 

 use of the adjective "floor" to describe some carpets 

 in the household inventories of deceased persons. 



For instance, "1 Floor Carpet" valued at £7 10s. 

 was mentioned in "An After Inventory of Sundrys 

 belonging to the Estate of Mrs. Margaret Claxton, 

 late of Boston, Widow Deced." recorded in 1746.^ 

 It is difficult to say with any certainty whether 

 Turkey carpets also were used as floor coverings in 

 colonial houses during the earlier part of the 18th 

 century, as they were in some of the better English 

 houses. Oriental carpets, however, were generally 

 thought of in terms of table and furniture coverings 

 rather than floor coverings until about the middle 

 of the 18th century in the colonies. 



Some insight into the transition of the Oriental 

 carpet from furniture to floor covering can be gained 

 from inventories of household furnishings such as 

 that of Mr. Nathaniel Cunningham, a resident of 

 Massachusetts living in the Boston area. In the list 

 of Cunningham's belongings, recorded in 1 748 shortly 

 after his death, besides "1 Canvas Floor Cloth £4" 

 located in the great chamber on the first floor, there 

 were "2 old Turkey Carpetts £7" in the upper garret 

 and "2 Turkey Carpets" worth £4 in the little 

 upstairs chamber. In contrast to these Turkey 

 carpets were those listed in the same inventory but 

 "At the New House" as "1 fine Large New Turkey 

 Carpet £60 [and] 1 D[itt]o. somewhat worn £30. "^ 

 The difference in location, the new house as against 

 the garret and an upper chamber, and the difference 

 in the adjectives, new, fine, and large, as against old, 

 are differences which suggest that the Tt rkey carpets 



' .Kitex Inventory of Mrs. Margaret Claxton, March 13, 

 1746. MS, SufTolk County, Massachusetts, Probate Court 

 Record Books, vol. 39, p. 428; seen on microhlm. United States 

 National Museum. Hereinafter cited as Suffolk Probate Books. 



■' Inventory of Nathaniel Cunningham, Feb. 6, 1 748. In 

 Suffolk Probate Books, vol. 42, pp. 155-164. 



BULLETIN 2 50: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 



