Figure 2 1 . — Floor covering, American, early i gth century. Brown flowers bloom on the white lattice spread 

 over the gray-green ground of this needlework wool carpet. The Greek-key border and its surrounding sea- 

 shells are brown and white. The inset section was made to fit around the fireplace hearth. {Courtesy of 

 The Metropolitan Museum oj Art, gift of Miss Isabelle C. Mygatt, ig2j.) 



usually was used to cover furniture rather than floors. 

 Although some of the 18th-century floor coverings in 

 needlework may have been copies of Orientals, most 

 seem to have been made with naturalistic floral pat- 

 terns often in rich colors against a dark ground, ac- 

 cording to extant English examples.'"' The field and 

 border of these carpets may be lavishly strewn with 

 flowers or filled with a balanced arrangement of 



"" Tattersall, op. cit. (footnote 93), frontispiece and plates 

 26-20. 



floral bouquets, garlands, and medallions. Pre- 

 sumably American needlewomen with the time and 

 skill could have embroidered similarly patterned 

 carpets. If they did or if needlework carpets were 

 used on this side of the Atlantic in the 18th century no 

 evidence seems to exist of it today. 



There is, however, an American example made 

 after the turn of the 19th century (fig. 21). This 

 carpet is reported to ha\e been made by the immediate 

 members of Judge Pliny Moore's family for the draw- 

 ing room of their house in Champlain, New York, 

 and remained in possession of descendants until 



PAPER 59: FLOOR COVERINGS IN 18TH-CENTURY AMERICA 



45 



