a time. On the first floor there was "1 Brussels 

 Carpet" each, in the "Levee Room," the "Breakfast 

 Room," and the "Lodging Room," wliile the "Dining 

 Room" had "1 Brussels Carp)et with Green Baize 

 Cover." On the second floor the "President's Office," 

 the "Ladies Drawing Room," and the "Secretar)''s 

 Office" each had "1 Brussels Carpet." The "Presi- 

 dent's Bed Room," also on the second floor, had "1 

 Brussels carpet . . . in tolerable order." In addition, 

 a number of other rooms, upstairs as well as down, 

 had floor coverings. Downstairs the "President's 

 Drawing Room" had "1 common carpet" as did some 

 of the rooms upstairs such as bedrooms, the dressing 

 room, and the hall. The "Back Stair Case" was 

 "Carpetted compleat" and downstairs in the "Grand 

 Hall" the floor was "laid with common carpeting." 

 Thomas Jefferson probably used some of these carpets 

 besides obtaining new ones during his stay in the 

 White House. According to the inventory of 1809, 

 the President's sitting room, the President's drawing 

 roona, and the large, northwest corner dining room 

 as well as the small, south front bedroom each had 

 an "elegant Brussels carpet." There was a "Brussels 

 carpet on the floor" in the large, north side room, 

 as well as in the President's bedroom and the passage 

 adjoining it. Brussels carpet also was used in the 

 large, south front bedroom, lady's drawing room, and 

 the two, north front bedchambers. No doubt, then 

 as now, Brussels carpets and carpeting provided a 

 wool-pile floor covering that was long wearing and 

 easy to care for and at the same time was available 

 in "elegant patterns." 



WILTON 



Wilton carpets and carpeting are still being manu- 

 factured and, as in the past, continue to be character- 

 ized by a cut-pile surface. The surface of the Wilton 

 was in fact a refinement of the Brussels-type pile. 

 As already explained, the manufacture of floor cover- 

 ings with a loop pile was first established about 1 740 

 at Wilton and thereafter in other carpet-weaving 

 towns. After its introduction at Wilton a change 

 was effected in the Brussels-type pile by cutting the 

 loops. Although this technique may have been 

 practiced on the continent and elsewhere in England, 

 it is believed to have been an early specialty of Wilton. 

 Subsequently, woven floor covering with a cut pile 

 was, and indeed still is, known as Wilton type in con- 

 trast to that with a loop pile known as Brussels type. 



The carpets made at Wilton, according to Bishop 

 Pococke who visited the English town in 1754, were 



"like those of Turkey, but narrow — about three- 

 quarters of a yard wide." *^ The comparison of 

 Wilton to Turkey or Oriental carpets was most 

 likely a reference to the cut-pile surface of a rich, soft 

 texture. It also may have been to the color and design 

 of the English-made carpets, but for the most part 

 Wiltons probably had floral or geometric patterns 

 or were plain. Wiltons often were patterned; this is 

 suggested by the instructions issued in connection 

 with the premiums awarded in 1757 and subsequent 

 years by the Dublin Society to encourage carpet- 

 making in Ireland. Wiltons were to be made "order- 

 ing the Flower, or Figure, so that they may join." ** 

 This seems to indicate that the previous entries of 

 Wiltons, a type first mentioned in the 1 752 premiums, 

 had been patterned, and consequently presented some 

 difficulties when the pieces were joined together to 

 make a carpet. Information about patterned Wiltons 

 also appears again in the Dublin Society's premium 

 competition for 1780. In that year an award was 

 offered for "the best Irish Carpet, 28 ft. long, 18 inches 

 wide in imitation of ancient Mosaic with a foot 

 Border round it, to be made of the Wilton kind." *^ 

 The fact that the design was to simulate an ancient 

 mosaic may reflect the new fashion based on Greco- 

 Roman material that was beginning to characterize 

 architecture and furnishings at that time. A later 

 Irish reference to the sale of "a great variety of car- 

 peting in the sprigway, from half a yard wide to 

 eight quarters wide," in the Hibernian Chronical of 

 Cork in 1783, although not mentioning the type of 

 floor covering, does reveal a continuing taste in the 

 18th century for floral designs.*" Further evidence 

 that patterned Wiltons were favored in the 18th cen- 

 tury appears in George Washington's instructions, to 

 be discussed shortly, concerning the carpet for the 

 blue parlor at Mount Vernon. Either "the ground or 

 principal flowers in it ought to be blue," he wrote in 

 1 797. No matter what form the pattern of a Wilton 

 carpet may have taken, it was made in the same way as 

 that of a Brussels: that is, by using differently colored 

 threads for the pile and bringing them to the surface 

 when a particular color was called for in the design. 

 If the carpet was plain, then all the pile threads would, 

 of course, have been the same color. 



83 The Travels through England of Dr. Richard Pococke, op. cit. 

 (footnote 70) (1889), new scr., vol. 44,f.art 2, p. 48. 

 ^ LoNGFiELD, op. cit. (footnote 80), p. 70. 

 KIbid., p. 81. 

 9» Ibid., p. 70. 



PAPER 59: FLOOR COVERINGS IN 18TH-CENTURY AMERICA 



37 



