From lap to loom: The transition of Marseilles white work from hand to machine

Chronicle of the Early American Industries Association, Inc., The, Mar 2001 by Atkins, Jacqueline M

the inspiration for this paper was a white-work textile (Figures I and I a) in the collections of the Delaware County Historical Association (DCHA) in Delhi, N.Y (about seventy miles south of Albany). I came across the piece in the course of preparing an inventory and assessment of the association's quilt collection. It had no provenance and no supporting background information-essentially, an "orphan of the collection." This homely but intriguing piece, made of a Marseilles-style woven spread that had then been backed, quilted, and stuffed, thus represented a number of things all in one package: white work, quilting, stuffed work, woven work, hand work, and machine production.

I was intrigued by the piece as I had never before seen a textile that was woven to mimic quilting actually used as the base for a quilt. It raised a number of questions: Were there similar examples in other collections? Could additional information be discovered in regard to its origin? Could its age be determined? And not least: Why would someone go to the trouble of quilting a piece already "quilted"? If any of these questions could be answered, the specific textile might remain an 11 orphan," but it would at least be an orphan with a contextual history.

Although this piece appeared to be firmly anchored in the white-work tradition in North America, its woven origins also clearly tied it to the blossoming of larger scale commercial textile manufacturing in England and America in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. To some extent, it can be said to represent the widespread impact that industrial-woven textiles had on home-woven ones as the nineteenth century progressed. It also showed how the ongoing popularity of white work helped to feed the ongoing popularity of white spread.

White Work: Definitions

White work has a long and venerable tradition in textile history, though its popularity has waxed and waned over the years. White work is a broad term, one that may be said to encompass any white-on-white needlework, that is, needlework that uses a white yarn or thread on a white ground to create a pattern. Various techniques are employed to make these patterns stand out in high relief against their monochrome background, with the result that many white work pieces have an intensely sculptural quality (Figures 2 and Via). These techniques include embroidery, drawn work, pulled-fabric work, stump work, stuffed work, cording, quilting, candlewicking, and, later, weaving, both by draw loom and machine.1 Sometimes these techniques are used singly, sometimes in combination. Though woven white work does not specifically fit the "needlework" element of the white-work definition as given above, it is very much a part of what was accepted as white work within popular culture and plays an important part of the story to be told here, especially in its guise as woven "Marseilles quilts."

The term "Marseilles quilt" itself presents some difficulties. It has been applied for more than two centuries, often without clear distinction, to a number of textile categories, from hand-stitched, corded, stuffed, and quilted bed covers made in Provence, France, and elsewhere, to loom-woven Marseilles-style spreads and yard goods made in England, France, and North America. The terminology is further complicated by the free-form spelling of earlier centuries in which "Marseilles" became "Marsells," "Marcella," "marcels," 11 marsella," "Marsala," "marsyle," or yet some other variation.' "Matelasse" is a term used today for machine-woven Marseilles-type bedspreads, but in French matelasse refers to a hand-quilted textile. The term "Marseilles quilt" will be used here to describe the hand-stitched and hand-quilted textiles made in Provence, and "Marseilles-style spreads" will refer to loom- or machine-woven textiles intended to mimic the hand-stitched Marseilles quilts.3

Hand-Stitched White Work in Europe:

A Brief History

White work in its various guises has been found continuously in Europe since the seventeenth century. It was popular over the years in both bedding and clothing, following fashion as well as the contemporary sumptuary laws of various countries.4 Earlier scattered examples are also known. The earliest still-surviving white-work bed cover, for example, attributed to a Sicilian needlework atelier, dates from the late fourteenth century.5 There are also references in a 1426 estate inventory of the countess of Avelin (near Arles, in Provence) to bed covers "worked all in white `in the style of Naples'," and the countess herself is said to have made a similar stuffed and corded bed covers There were well-traveled shipping routes between Sicily, Naples, and Provence, and it would not be unusual for goods (such as bed covers) and techniques (such as cording and stuffing) to have found their way from one location to another.

White work in clothing is seen in petticoats, camisoles, waistcoats, caps, baby garments, and cloaks. Silk, linen, cotton, and occasionally fine wools were quilted and corded and sometimes even further embellished with embroidery. White was not the only color used in these items. A wide range of colors, prints, and weaves were used for petticoats and waistcoats in particular. Embroidered and quilted white work was used in clothing in a variety of ways throughout Europe by the early seventeenth century. By this time the finely quilted bed covers and garments made in the Provenal region of France had found their way into the international marketplace and were becoming increasingly prized. In England these (sometimes elaborately) quilted French textiles were commonly known as "Marseilles quilts" after their port of origin, although, as noted above, the terms "marcella," " marsala," "marsells," and "marsyle" were also used, especially in regard to the yard goods of this type.7