Household textiles 1660-1850: hidden items of material culture from the country house

Abstract

The role of decorative textiles within the country house as elite signifers has attracted considerable attention, yet that of the household textiles that performed practical functions linked to sociability, comfort and hygiene has been underrepresented. Household textiles, the sheets, pillow cases, table linen and towels that were part of the everyday experience of everyone except the indigent, are by their very nature, transitory. Until the middle of the nineteenth century they were made of linen. This could be from flax or hemp; home produced or imported. Only linen could withstand the rigours of the washing methods in use until relatively recently and since a wide variety of qualities of it were available, it was the fabric of choice for all not least the gentry. This article identifies the range of such textiles available to the country house consumer and their ways of acquiring them together with the values and meanings placed upon them by contemporaries. Analysing data from sales catalogues and combined with probate and household inventories reveals a wealth of hitherto underused information pertaining to some 80 gentry households allowing the article to explore the mechanics of how household textiles were used, maintained and stored in order to consider how they were perceived and valued by their owners thus contributing towards bridging the divide between studies of consumption and investigations of country house life.