Captain Fortesque Vernon, recorded on February 19, 

 1779.' Obviously, Oriental carpets whatever their 

 size, were greatly esteemed in the colonies. 



Turkey carpets were highly prized because of their 

 beauty, but undoubtedly rarity and cost also were 

 factors that influenced their desirability. Even in 

 an age when most things were made by hand, the 

 time and labor involved in the manufacture of 

 Oriental carpets were great. This was especially so 

 if the surface was a pile one because each of the short 

 pieces of yarn standing up on the surface that made 

 the pile was knotted by hand to the warp or length- 

 wise threads. This was done a row at a time. After 

 a row of pile had been knotted, a weft or crosswise 

 thread was woven through the warp threads. Then 

 another row of pile was knotted and a thread woven 

 across in front of it, and so on, until the carpet was 

 finished. The so-called Turkey-work, the western 

 imitation of Oriental pile rugs, also involved hand 

 knotting. This home product of amateur needle- 

 women was made by threading yarns through a 

 coarse fabric, then knotting and cutting them. Never- 

 theless, the fine, tight-knotting characteristic of the 

 imported Turkey rugs and the resulting long-wearing, 

 firm construction was seldom matched by the hand- 

 knotted pile carpets made in the West. Durability, 

 therefore, was another factor that accounted for the 

 high value placed on Orientals. In addition to the 

 considerable time and labor involved in producing 

 Oriental carpets, the methods of transporting them 

 from the Near East were slow and uncertain. As a 

 result, Turkey carpets were expensive, and the num- 

 ber available at any one time was limited. Conse- 

 quently, their use in the colonies was determined to 

 a great extent by the quantity on hand and the size 

 of one's pocketbook. 



This seems to be verified by the newspaper ad- 

 vertisements of the period. The Oriental carpets 

 offered for sale seldom appear in notices of recently 

 arrived imports, but rather in advertisements for an 

 auction or "Public Vendue" of household furniture. 

 Many of the Turkey carpets available at the time 

 were not new but used, presumably because the supply 

 was limited. Or they may have been part of the 

 booty obtained from a captured ship or "prize" and, 

 not being legally imported, were sold at public auc- 

 tion as part of the furnishings of a household. They 



also may have been part of some merchandise being 

 sold at auction by a shopkeeper or merchant needing 

 cash or wishing to dispose quickly of surplus or dated 

 goods. This situation was not restricted to any one 

 area, but was common to all the colonies, northern, 

 mid- Atlantic, and southern. According to an adver- 

 tisement in the Virginia Gazette of September 5, 1751, 

 Turkey carpets were among a "Great Variety of 

 fashionable Furniture" which was "to be SOLD, for 

 ready Money or short Credit." * A year later in the 

 Maryland Gazette of June 25, an Annapolis merchant 

 announced that he had just imported from London 

 and had for sale, secondhand, "a compleat set of 

 household and kitchen Furniture" that included 

 "Turkey and English Carpets." ^ Northern colonists, 

 too, were informed of the sale of Oriental carpets in a 

 similar manner. Notices listing "a Turkey Carpet" 

 among household items to be sold by public vendue 

 appeared in the Boston Gazette of January 8, 1754, and 

 April 1 7, 1 758. Shoppers reading the Boston News- 

 Letter foimd similar announcements of sale by public 

 vendue. "Sundry Turkey Carpets" were part of the 

 "Very good Household Furniture" advertised on Au- 

 gust 7, 1760; "Turkey . . . Carpets" were part of the 

 "various articles of household furniture" advertised on 

 June 16, 1763; and "Turkey and other Carpets" were 

 part of "the genteel House Furniture" advertised on 

 August 30, 1770 — all to be sold at auctions. Notices 

 of this type were the rule, and advertisements like the 

 following two of William Greenleaf were the excep- 

 tion. One in the Boston News-Letter of January 29, 

 1761, announced that Mr. Greenleaf had imported 

 from London and Bristol and had on sale at his store a 

 number of items including "Rich Persian carpets, 3, 

 4, and 4 by 5 yards square." The other advertise- 

 ment which appeared a few years later in the Boston 

 Gazelle of December 12, 1763, mentioned "a few very 

 handsome Persia Carpets 4 yards and 3 yards square." 

 In general, advertisements such as these two were 



' Inventory of Fortesque Vernon, Feb. 19, 1779. In Suffolk 

 Probate Books, vol. 78, pp. 45-49. 



' This and most other Virginia newspaper references have 

 been taken from the Virginia Gazelle on microfilm accompanying 

 Lester J. Cappon and Stella F. Duff, Virginia Gazelle 

 Index. V36-VS0 (Williamsburg: The Institute of Early 

 American History and Culture, 1950). 



9 This and most other Maryland, Pennsylvania, and South 

 Carolina newspaper references have been taken from Alfred 

 CoxE Prime, The Arts and Crafts in Philadelphia, Maryland and 

 South Carolina. 1721-1785 (Topsfield, Mass.: The Walpole 

 Society, 1929), and The Arts and Crafts in Philadelphia, Maryland 

 and South Carolina. 17S6-1S00 (Topsfield, Mass.: The Walpole 

 Society, 1932). 



BULLETI>i 2 50: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 



