tracks and aided in sweeping. Often it was spread in 

 decorative designs, the favored patterns being her- 

 ringbone and swirled dots. "* Presumably, sand was 

 inexpensive and easy to obtain. In Philadelphia, 

 according to Watson, at the time when white sand for 

 floors was "an important article of consumption, the old 

 sand man, for the northern part of the city, was looked 

 for the same as the milkman." "^ 



Recollections, of course, must be used with caution 

 since an individual's remembrance of events and objects 

 often is dimmed by the passage of time. There need 

 be little doubt, however, that either Watson or the 

 people whose reminiscences he recorded had been 

 mistaken in regard to the use of sand as a floor 

 covering. Their statements are verified by Abbe 

 Claude Robin who traveled in this country in 1781. 

 This Frenchman remarked that in the houses of 

 wealthy Americans "their floors are covered with 

 handsome carpets, or painted cloths, but others 

 sprinkle them with fine sand."'"' No matter how 

 attractive a pattern the 18th-century housewife may 

 have created or how fine and white the sand, a floor 

 covered with a layer of this substance certainly would 

 have had an untidy appearance once walked upon, 

 and in most households must have been a messy 

 business indeed. Nevertheless, it was used, and, if con- 

 sidered in terms of 18th-century conditions when path- 

 ways, sidewalks, lanes, and roads often consisted of 

 little more than mud and slush, sand might well 

 have been a more utilitarian and satisfactory form 

 of floor covering than a woven carpet or painted 

 floorcloth. 



Sale of Floor Coverings 



The sale of floor coverings in 1 8th-century America 

 was common to auctioneers, painters, shopkeepers, 

 and upholsterers, although it was an adjunct to their 

 principal occupations of, respectively, conducting 

 public sales, furnishing painting supplies and skills, 

 providing a general selection of goods, and supplying 

 interior fittings and furnishings. 



Upholsterers form the largest portion of this group 



'" Esther Stevens Fraser, "Some Colonial and Early 

 American Decorative Floors," Antiques (April 1931), vol. 19, 

 p. 296. 



115 Watson, op. cit. (footnote 110), vol. 2, p. 5,')0. 



'"Claude Robin, New Travels Through North America, [trans. 

 Philip Freneau] (Philadelphia: Robert Bell, 1783), p. 13. 



who combined their craft with the sale of floor cover- 

 ings. They seem to be the principal retailers of woven- 

 pile and pileless carpets and carpeting at this time. 

 For example, John Mason's ad\ertisement in the 

 Pennsylvania Chronicle of October 28, 1771, stated that, 

 besides selling Wilton carpeting and sundry other 

 items, "The said Mason carries on the Upholstery 

 Business, in all its branches." Francis Partrige, an 

 upholsterer "in Old-Town, Baltimore," announced in 

 the Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser on Septem- 

 ber 19, 1783, that he made "Carpets for Rooms," and 

 William Mooney, the proprietor of a "Furniture 

 Ware-House" according to the New-York journal of 

 October 27, 1785, was another upholsterer who sold 

 floor coverings. Norwood and Kant, a partnership of 

 New York upholsterers, also combined their trade 

 with the manufacture and sale of underfoot furnish- 

 ings according to an advertisement in The Diary; or 

 Evening Register of September 16, 1794. 



The dual role of upholsterer and carpet salesman was 

 considered a satisfactory one by some men even when 

 the locality of their business was not so satisfactory. 

 This may explain why in 1 799, C. Alder, associated 

 with Philadelphia in prior newspaper notices, adver- 

 tised in the New-York Gazette and General Advertiser of 

 May 13 as "upholsterer. Paper Hanger" and retailer 

 of "a great variety of . . . Carpeting" at No. 67 

 Maiden Lane, New York City. Although Alder con- 

 tinued to combine his craft skills with the sale of 

 floor coverings, he apparently had left Philadelphia 

 where, according to the Federal Gazette on November 

 16 of that year, another upholsterer was supplying the 

 city's floor-covering needs in the form of "brass and 

 iron rods and staples for stairs'" in addition to the 

 usual selection of carpets and carpeting. 



Painters were another craft group often associated 

 with underfoot furnishings. They usually applied 

 their skills to the manufacture and sale of painted 

 floorcloths as well as to painting coaches, houses, and 

 signs. 



Shopkeepers also sold coverings for floors along with 

 a general miscellany of merchandise. An advertise- 

 ment in the Virginia Gazette of October 1 5, 1 767, an- 

 nounced the sale of "all sorts of dry goods," along with 

 currants, figs, and almonds as well as "sugars of all 

 sorts, carpets and carpeting of all sizes." Carpeting 

 also was found among the general assortment of goods 

 "imported by the last arrival from London" that 

 Andrew Van Tuyl and Son listed in the Daily Adver- 

 tiser of .^pril 6, 1 796, for sale in their .\ew York store. 

 In addition, floor coverings also could be obtained 



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