LARGE FINE WOVEN DAMASK LINEN TABLECLOTH
LATE 17TH / EARLY 18TH CENTURY
Estimate: £300 - £500
Auction: Session Two - Thursday 20th February at 10am
Description
probably Northern European, woven with a complex design of animals, birds and mythical beasts within a foliate ground, border of rosettes and arabesques with a chequered outer edge, selvedge edges and hemmed by hand to top and bottom edges with very fine stitching, inside a fitted long pine box with a roller
Dimensions
294cm long, 174cm wide
Provenance
The Murray family, formerly at Dollerie House, Crieff, Perthshire
Footnote
Note: This linen was likely woven in one of the countries fringing the North Sea, possibly Scotland, England or the Low Countries. Damask linens from those nations at the end of the seventeenth century have similar designs and weaving styles. The pattern of this piece, with motifs of heraldic beasts and stags, does suggest a possible Scottish origin. This lot is offered by a member of the Murray family, formerly at Dollerie House, Crieff, Perthshire.
In the early sixteenth century damask table linen, with its elaborate reversible patterns, had been reserved for the church and the upper echelons of society, including royalty, the nobility and the very rich. As the century progressed, however, the textile industry grew, with linen weaving centres flourishing in Flanders in the Southern Netherlands and Haarlem in Holland. As a result, the use of table linen by merchants, tradesmen, and others of the middle and upper classes grew, so that by 1600 most of these households had at least one complete set of table linen, comprising one or more tablecloths, and a number of napkins. Household inventories of the time, often listing more napkins and tablecloths than sheets and pillowcases, show the importance of table linen in households. Such items were accumulated by families over many years and passed down the generations.