cotton-art

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cotton-art - 4/19/95

Article on cotton in the Middle Ages.

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Cotton in the Middle Ages

Date: Fri, 31 Mar 95 12:25:16 EDT

From: drickman at state.de.us

To: h-costume at andrew.cmu.edu

Subject: cotton

I am not sure if this is of interest to anyone, but recent discussions

about the use of cotton by reenactors led me and others into an off the

list discussion of just what the word "cotton" meant to earlier centuries

and just what forms it may have been used in (i.e. batting, textiles) and

how commonly it was used.

My first indication that this was getting complicated was when Kathleen let

us know that Cromwell ordered shirts of linen and of cotton for soldiers

bound for the Bahamas. I discovered from the respected early textiles

expert, Nathalie Rothstein, that cotton in the 17th century was a word,

much like "flannel," which describes a weave or surface of cloth, and not

its fiber. In fact, in earlier times, "cotton" most often meant a woolen

fabric.

I spent last night reading through Florence Montgomery's Textiles in

America, 1650 - 1870 and picking Nathalie's brain, and this is roughly what

I came up with. First, Florence defines "cotton":

A term used to designate certain woolen cloths from at least the

fifteenth century, so one must be cautious in reading the

term...the explanation of the use of the word cotton may lie in

the fact that it had also the sense of nap or down, and the

process of raising the nap of woollen cloths was called

"cottoning" or "frizzing"...At the end of the sixteenth century,

Manchester was "eminent for its woollen cloth or Manchester

cottons"..."

An 1822 source quoted by this same author notes that in America and the

West Indies, cottons made of wool were chiefly used as clothing for

slaves...though some were worn in Great Britain by "the poor or labouring

husbandmen." This source speculates that the word could have been a

corruption of "coating" i.e. fabric meant for coats.

The point of this is not to say that what we call "cotton" didn't exist in

the 14th century, but that when we look for evidence of its use in the

written record, we need to know that, until well into the 19th century, the

word probably means wool, not cotton.

So, when did cotton such as we use come in? I don't know, yet. Florence's

book is laid out not as a history, but as a dictionary of early textile

terms. I can, however, report that under "Fustian" she tells us that it was

a cotton/linen fabric, originally a linen/wool (by the way, from here on in

this letter, when I write cotton, I intend the modern meaning of the word).

Fustians were made in Norwich, England as early as 1336, but these were a

wool/linen mixture. In 1554, Dutch and Walloon immigrants to England

brought with them the making of "fustians of Naples" which probably were

cotton/linen, because a 1601 description of fustians says that they were

made "of Bombast or Downe, being a fruit of the earth growing upon little

shrubs or bushes...commonly called Cotton Wooll; and also of Lynnen yarn

most part brought out of Scotland..."

Not mentioned by Florence, but told to me by Nathalie, is the fact that the

reason fustians, as well as any other European textile was not entirely

cotton was because cotton, as a fiber, is quite short, and so does not make

a very strong warp. The warp, of course, is the part of the textile that is

strung on the loom, and the weft is what is woven into it. Linen, on the

other hand, is a very long, and therefore strong, fiber, and makes a very

good warp. Thus, fustian has a linen warp and a cotton weft. Not until 1779

did the English (and thus the rest of Europe) learn how to make a strong

cotton warp, using something called a "mule-jenny." Meanwhile, in 1600, the

East Inda Company was chartered, and began the regular, and rather

high-volume, import of Indian cotton goods (as well as silks) into England

and the rest of Europe. These were not, however, clothing goods until 1670,

but rather coarse cottons, used for sacking, sailcloth and so on. Under

"Indian Goods" Florence Montgomery quotes one source which says that, prior

to 1670, no one apparently wore cotton, but rather "our more natural and

usual wear was cambrics, Silesia lawns, and such kind of fine flaxen

linens, from Flanders and Germany" which the British received in trade in

exchange for their famous woolen goods.

After 1670, "flimsy muslins from India" began seeing use as substitutes for

these just-mentioned fine linens. They were popular because they were

cheap, but they were also shoddy. Cotton used to line a man's coat, for

example, was twelve pence cheaper than linen shalloon, but the cotton wore

out quickly, where shalloon would outlast the coat itself and could be used

to line another.

Cottons were so cheap that, by the end of the 17th century, there were

strong moves by the weavers and linen merchants of England to outlaw their

import, which was partly successful. Of particular threat were the printed

cottons from India, and these were outlawed altogether. People were

arrested for owning them. Meanwhile, by the mid-18th century, Britain had

developed its own textile industry, weaving cotton and printing it in

imitation of Indian goods.

One last point, since "cotton" referred to a weave, similar to a worsted,

one needs to look for names of particular weaves of cotton fabric from

India when seeking evidence of its use in Europe and America. Such names

were legion, and not at all standardized, but look for the obvious ones

such as muslin, calico, and gingham. The less obvious ones can generally be

deciphered with references to Florence's invaluable book.

This, I hope, will not be the end of this discussion. Without a doubt there

are others on this list who know more than I do about this subject. Someone

else told us that there was a cotton industry in Italy in the Middle Ages,

and it would be interesting to know what sorts of textiles they wove, and

whether any of it was used for clothing, other than batting for a poupoint,

I think it was. How did this southern industry affect northern Europe?

There are many facets of this subject I would like to know about, and I'll

continue my search as well. Oh, and if this really is too boring for the

general list, let me know. Thanks.

David