a year later J. Alexander and Clonipany was offering 

 for sale '-English and Scot's carpets and Hair Cloth 

 for Stairs." Cblonists in Williamsburg, too, could 

 purcliase ''Scotch carpels and carpeting of almost 

 all sizes'' according to an advertisement in the i'lrgiriia 

 Gazette of September 23, 1773. The following year 

 a merchant in New York announced on May 12 

 in Rivington' s .\ew-)'flrk Gazetteer that he had "Scotch 

 carpets and carpeting, to be sold very low" in price. 

 After the Revolutionary War, as before, the name 

 "Scotch" continued to appear frequently in the news- 

 paper advertisements. In 1791, "Scotch Carpets" 

 were part of a "fresh Assortment" of goods imported 

 from London and offered for sale on January 1 in the 

 New-York Daily Advertiser and on June 16 there was 

 a notice for the sale of imported carpets and carpeting 

 including "common Scotch" ingrain. Among the 

 goods received by the "late arrivals from Europe" 

 being offered for sale in 1796 by a Philadelphia 

 upholsterer and paperhanger, who adxertised in 

 the Pennsylvania Packet of October 31, were "Ingrain 

 Scotch Carpeting" as well as Brussels and Wilton 

 "of excellent quality." An upholsterer in New York 

 City, also, sold carpets and carpeting of European 

 origin according to his advertisement in the New- 

 York Gazette and General Advertiser of Mav 22, 1 799, 

 which mentioned both "Scotch ingrained" and "4-4 

 [yards] common Scotch." 



Although the name "ingrain" usually appeared in 

 conjunction with tlie locality name employed for 

 double-woven floor coverings, it was used alone in 

 an occasional advertisement. For example, a sale 

 notice in the New-York Daily Advertiser of January 1, 

 1791, listed "Ingrain'd Carpeting and Scotch 

 Carpets." 



Not all carpets of this type offered for sale were 

 new or imported. Among the advertisements ex- 

 amined, some were found in which the carpets were 

 part of some "elegant and valuable household furni- 

 ture" that was to be sold at "public Vendue." 

 English carpets were sold in this way in Annapolis 

 in 1 752, and in Boston in 1 763, according to an adver- 

 tisement on June 16, in the Boston News-Letter. 

 Another advertisement in that newspaper on Novem- 

 ber 11,1 773, and one in the New-York Gazette and the 

 Weekly Mercury of June 29, 1772, indicate that second- 

 hand or used Scotch carpets were available in New 

 York City as well as in Boston. And in Philadelphia, 

 "a Scotch carpet and 2 bedf-side] ditto, new" were 

 listed among the "Furniture and Goods of the Hon. 

 John Penn, Senr." which were to be "exposed to 



Sale ... at his House in C^hestnut-strect," in May 

 1788."« 



Advertisements further indicate, as do other .sources, 

 that pileless, loom-wo\'en floor coverings were made in 

 this country in the 18th century. Perhaps this was 

 the type meant by Joseph Cherry in his acK'ertisement 

 of October 26, 1 796, in the Herald of New ^'ork, which 

 read: "The subscriber respectfully informs his friends 

 and the public in general, that he has commenced the 

 weaving business in Division Street . . . where he 

 carries on the Weaving of linen, lawns. Diapers of 

 different kinds, Bedticks of all kinds, flowered Bed- 

 spreads of different kinds, carpeting of all kinds, from 

 the highest to the lowest degree." 



On June 13, 1797, another New York weaver, 

 Thomas Thompson, placed a notice in the Goshen 

 Repository stating that he had taken a shop in Blooming 

 Grove where he intended to "carry on the weaving of 

 Carpets, double and single Coverlids of the newest 

 fashion." No doubt there were other professional 

 weavers in other communities who also made carpets 

 for whoever wanted and could afford them. The 

 "homspn." and "Woolen" carpets listed in inventories 

 previously mentioned may have been such products. 

 But it is doubtl'ul that this work of handicrafts men 

 was of much importance in providing a domestic 

 supply of wool floor coverings in 18th-century 

 America."" 



The pileless wool carpeting originally owned and 

 used by the Copp family of Stonington, Connecticut 

 (fig. 15), also could ha\e been the work of professional 

 weavers. According to tradition, howe\'cr, it was 

 made by two spinster sisters of the family in the early 

 19th century. Proof that such carpets were on occa- 

 sion made in the home by amateur but skilled weavers 

 is provided by Dr. William Bentley, a diarist and 

 pastor of the East Church in Salem, Massachusetts. 

 Of his activities on November 22, 1 790, Bentley wrote : 

 Had an opportunity this evening of viewing a Carpet 

 woven after the manner of the Scotch Carpet, with 

 admirable execution. The Lady's name is Roclic, who 

 executed it in her own private family."* 



'" Marie G. Kimb.all, "The Furnishings of Governor Penn's 

 Town House." Antiques (May 1931 ), vol. 19, p. 378. 



" -Arthur Harrison Cole, "The Rise of the Factory in the 

 .'\nierican Carpet Manufacture," Fads and Factors in Economic 

 History by Former Students of Edivin Francis Gay (Cambridge, 

 Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1932), pp. 382-86. 



'" Tlie Diary of William Bentley, D.D., Pastor of the East Church, 

 Salrm, Massachusetts (Salem: The Essex Institute, 1905-1914), 

 vol. 1, p. 214. 



32 



BULLETIN 25">: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLfJGY 



