Figure 23. — Venetian carpeting, leather-trimmed mail sack, American, early igth century. 

 The distinctive Venetian carpeting sold for covering floors was so durable that it was also 

 used for mail sacks such as this one used on the route opened in 1815 from Rochester to 

 Canandaigua, New York. The fabric is appro.ximately 22 inches wide; the multicolored 

 stripes are formed by the warp. (In the collection of the Rochester Historical Society; 

 Smithsonian photo P-174.) 



in Sheraton's Dictionary as "generally striped" (fig. 

 23). It also is reported to have been made in checks 

 as well as simple stripes and to have been used 

 mainly for stairs and passages in the 19th century."' 

 In addition to the already available, moderately 

 priced, nonpile carpeting, ingrain, the appearance of 

 Venetian carpeting on the American market in the 

 late 18th century forecast the increasing use of floor 

 coverings and the developments in techniques and 

 machinery for their manufacture that were to occur 

 in the early decades of the 19th century. 



SAND 



Sand, too, served as an underfoot furnishing in 

 1 8th-century American houses. Among the reminis- 

 cences that were collected and recorded by John F. 

 Watson in his book Annals of Philadelphia was one of a 

 lady who spoke of "things as they were before the war 

 of Independence." In reference to households at 

 that time, she recalled that although a carpet was 



'"Barbara Morris, "Textiles," The Early Victorian Period, 

 7830-7S60, edit. Ralph Edwards and L. G. G. Ramsey ("The 

 Connoisseur Period Guides"; New York: Reynal and Co., 

 1958), p. 125. 



sometimes seen, "a white floor sprinkled with clean 

 white sand, large tables and heavy high back chairs 

 of walnut or mahogany, decorated a parlour genteelly 

 enough for any body.""^ As to the appearance and 

 care of this most movable kind of floor covering, and 

 incidentally the social and economic status of the 

 people who used it, Watson wrote: 



Turkey carpets were spoken of, and only to be seen upon 



the floors of the first families for wealth. Parlour 



floors of very respectable people in business used to 



be "swept and garnished" every morning with sand 



sifted through a "sand sieve," and sometimes smoothed 



with a hair broom, into quaint circles and fancy wreaths, 



agreeably to the "genius for drawing" possessed by the 



chambermaid."^ 



Speaking of East Hampton, Long Island, about 1800, 



Lyman Beecher recalled that the houses there "all 



had sanded floors." It also has been reported that 



sand was used in midwestern log cabins as well as in 



the homes of the eastern countryside well into the 



19th century, and was spread on dirt floors for greater 



cleanliness, where it acted as an absorbent for boot 



112 vv.\TSON, op. cit. (footnote 1 10), vol. I, p. 205. 

 "' Ibid., vol. 2, p 550. 



48 



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



