 | |
| Years active | 16th to mid-18th centuries |
|---|---|
| Country | England |
| Influences | Oriental textiles |
Turkeywork (alternately turkey-work or turkey work; sometimes called setwork and Norwich work) is a knotted-and-cut pile furnishing textile produced in England from the sixteenth to the mid-eighteenth centuries. Turkeywork was used for table carpets, cupboard carpets, cushions, and especially for matched sets of upholstery for chair seats and backs. [1] [3] [4] [5] [6]
Turkeywork was produced by professional weavers in England from the 16th century. [5] [7] Short lengths or thrums of worsted wool were hand-knotted using the Turkish or Ghiordes knot (also called the symmetrical knot) on a linen or hemp-fibre warp. [3] [4] The colourful wool was shorn to produce a dense, even pile. Designs originally imitated so-called 'Turkey carpets', [7] the general name in Early Modern England for imported carpets of Middle Eastern origin, [8] which became popular for furniture covers (and less often, floor carpets) in the 16th century. It is sometimes said that Early Modern turkeywork upholstery is a form of needlework, [9] but this is no longer generally accepted. [5]
Economic historian Eric Kerridge records commercial production of turkeywork carpets as early as 1553 in Windsor, and "in Norwich in 1583, in York in 1595, and in Bradford in 1639". [10] These carpets were used to cover tables, hutches, and similar furniture, as well as for cushions and chair seats. Turkeywork was generally too expensive for use as floor carpets, "for each knot had to be formed separately by laying a thrum across two warp ends, folding it back under and inwards, and drawing its two ends up between the warps." [10] However, for "chairs given hard use in eating, meeting, and parade rooms, it formed an especially satisfactory covering, being both durable and colorful." [11] Turkeywork chairs were ordered by the dozen for meeting and committee rooms in the Palace of Whitehall and Holyrood Palace, [5] and turkeywork coverings for seating furniture were exported to both Europe and Colonial America. The 1658 inventory of a Boston merchant includes "2 turkie bottoms and backs for chayres", and a 1685 inventory in Philadelphia includes "1 doz. and 6 new backs & seats of Turkey work for Chairs". [7]
Turkeywork upholstery slowly fell out of fashion in favour of caned seating, associated with the William and Mary style of the early 18th century. [5] [11] The output of the turkeywork industry in its heyday had been prodigious. A 1698 petition to the king to outlaw the making of cane chairs in Britain in order to protect jobs asserted that before caning became popular "there were yearly made and Vended in this Kingdom above five thousand dozen of Set-work, (commonly called Turkey-work Chairs, though made in England)." [12]
In embroidery and needlepoint, Turkey work stitch or plush stitch is a Turkish knot worked with needle and thread on cloth or canvas. The pile may be left looped or cut to form a plush surface. [13]
A rug is a piece of cloth, similar to a carpet, but it does not span the width of a room and is not attached to the floor. It is generally used as a floor covering, or as a decorative feature. Rug making is the process of crafting a rug from various textile materials. Historically, there has been a variety of methods of rug making, including braiding, hooking, and weaving. These processes can be carried out by hand, using smaller tools like a latch hook, or using a weaving machine. Rag rugs are a historically notable and widespread form of hooked rug making. Rug hooking is both an art and a craft where rugs are made by pulling loops of yarn or fabric through a stiff woven base such as burlap, linen, or rug warp. The loops are pulled through the backing material by using a crochet-type hook mounted in a handle for leverage.
A carpet is a textile floor covering typically consisting of an upper layer of pile attached to a backing. The pile was traditionally made from wool, but since the 20th century synthetic fibers such as polypropylene, nylon, or polyester have often been used, as these fibers are less expensive than wool. The pile usually consists of twisted tufts that are typically heat-treated to maintain their structure. The term carpet is often used in a similar context to the term rug, but rugs are typically considered to be smaller than a room and not attached to the floor.
Upholstery is the work of providing furniture, especially seats, with padding, springs, webbing, and fabric or leather covers. The word also refers to the materials used to upholster something.
A Persian carpet or Persian rug, also known as Iranian carpet, is a heavy textile made for a wide variety of utilitarian and symbolic purposes and produced in Iran, for home use, local sale, and export. Carpet weaving is an essential part of Persian culture and Iranian art. Within the group of Oriental rugs produced by the countries of the "rug belt", the Persian carpet stands out by the variety and elaborateness of its manifold designs.
A kilim is a flat tapestry-woven carpet or rug traditionally produced in countries of the former Persian Empire, including Iran, the Balkans and the Turkic countries. Kilims can be purely decorative or can function as prayer rugs. Modern kilims are popular floor coverings in Western households.
Knot density is a traditional measure for quality of handmade or knotted pile carpets. It refers to the number of knots, or knot count, per unit of surface area - typically either per square inch (kpsi) or per square centimeter (kpsc), but also per decimeter or meter. Number of knots per unit area is directly proportional to the quality of carpet. Density may vary from 25 to 1,000 knots per square inch or higher, where ≤80 kpsi is poor quality, 120 to 330 kpsi is medium to good, and ≥330 kpsi is very good quality. The inverse, knot ratio, is also used to compare characteristics. Knot density = warp×weft while knot ratio = warp/weft. For comparison: 100,000/square meter = 1,000/square decimeter = 65/square inch = 179/gereh.
An oriental rug is a heavy textile made for a wide variety of utilitarian and symbolic purposes and produced in "Oriental countries" for home use, local sale, and export.
Pile weave is a form of textile created by weaving. This type of fabric is characterized by a pile—a looped or tufted surface that extends above the initial foundation, or 'ground' weave. The pile is formed by supplemental yarn running in the direction of the length of the fabric or the width of the fabric. Pile weaves include velvet and corduroy fabrics and machine-woven Berber carpets.
Bergama Carpet refers to handwoven Turkish carpets, made in the Bergama district in the Izmir Province of northwest Turkey. As a market place for the surrounding villages, the name of Bergama is used as a trade name to define the provenience.
Anatolian rug is a term of convenience, commonly used today to denote rugs and carpets woven in Anatolia and its adjacent regions. Geographically, its area of production can be compared to the territories which were historically dominated by the Ottoman Empire. It denotes a knotted, pile-woven floor or wall covering which is produced for home use, local sale, and export. Together with the flat-woven kilim, Anatolian rugs represent an essential part of the regional culture, which is officially understood as the Culture of Turkey today, and derives from the ethnic, religious and cultural pluralism of one of the most ancient centres of human civilisation.
The manufacture of textiles is one of the oldest of human technologies. To make textiles, the first requirement is a source of fiber from which a yarn can be made, primarily by spinning. The yarn is processed by knitting or weaving, which turns yarn into cloth. The machine used for weaving is the loom. For decoration, the process of colouring yarn or the finished material is dyeing. For more information of the various steps, see textile manufacturing.
Hereke carpets are Turkish handmade carpets produced and sold in Hereke, a coastal town in Turkey. For a long time, they used to be produced only in Hereke, 60 km from Istanbul. The materials used are silk, a combination of wool and cotton, and sometimes gold or silver threads.
A knotted-pile carpet is a carpet containing raised surfaces, or piles, from the cut off ends of knots woven between the warp and weft. The Ghiordes/Turkish knot and the Senneh/Persian knot, typical of Anatolian carpets and Persian carpets, are the two primary knots. A flat or tapestry woven carpet, without pile, is a kilim. A pile carpet is influenced by width and number of warp and weft, pile height, knots used, and knot density.
Pile is the raised surface or nap of a fabric, consisting of upright loops or strands of yarn. Examples of pile textiles are carpets, corduroy, velvet, plush, and Turkish towels. The word is derived from Latin pilus for "hair".
Mockado is a woollen pile fabric made in imitation of silk velvet from the mid-sixteenth century. Mockado was usually constructed with a woollen pile on a linen or worsted wool warp and woollen weft, although the ground fabric could be any combination of wool, linen, and silk. Mockado was used for furnishings and carpeting, and also for clothing such as doublets, farthingales, and kirtles.
Soumak is a tapestry technique of weaving sturdy, decorative fabrics used for carpets, rugs, domestic bags and bedding, with soumak fabrics used for bedding known as soumak mafrash.
Anatolian animal carpets represent a special type of pile-woven carpet, woven in the geographical region of Anatolia during the Seljuq and early Ottoman period, corresponding to the 14th–16th century. Very few animal-style carpets still exist today, and most of them are in a fragmentary state. Animal carpets were frequently depicted by Western European painters of the 14th–16th century. By comparison of the few surviving carpets with their painted counterparts, these paintings helped to establish a timeline of their production, and support our knowledge about the early Turkish carpet.
Qaleen is a type of hand knotted piled carpet. The term is used throughout Turkey, Iran and Central Asia, and making qaleens is currently practised as a handicraft in Turkey and Iran. Artisans may need at least two months to make one qaleen. The craft was learned from Persians by the artisans of Kashmir on the Indian subcontinent. These knotted pile carpets so were a blend of Persian and Indian craftsmanship. ''Qaleens'' or ''Ghalichas'' were made in the Kashmir region of India and Pakistan.
Mughal carpets were the handwoven floor coverings used in the Mughal Empire in their courts. Mughal carpets and rugs have their roots in India since the 16th and 17th centuries. Mughal carpets were a blend of Persian and Indian artistry uniquely designed with scenic landscapes, floral, and animal patterns. Kashmir was producing the finest wool and silk carpets and rugs, including prayer rugs. Sometimes the knot density in these rugs was so fine and tight as 300 knots per square centimeter.
Caffoy was a cut pile woolen velvet material popular for upholstery. It was a decorative textile characterized by its wool pile designs, which were designed to imitate the appearance of silk velvets and damasks. It was originally made from wool and was used to imitate silk furnishing damasks. However, in the 16th century, it may have also been made from silk. Norwich, a major center for worsted weaving, was a major producer of caffoy. In 1579, it was featured alongside other contemporary fabrics such as Darnex, Mockado, and figure-sized Russel in a pageant commemorating the queen's visit to Norwich. Caffoy was` popular during the 17th and early 18th centuries.
