Antique Georgian Irish Linen Damask Banqueting Tablecloth:Greek? Gods, Laurels
Item History & Price
This is another enormous, and very old cloth - one of two very special cloths which I'm listing this week. I'll add something of its provenance after the description. The measurement written on the cloth is 4 and a quarter yards. It is certainly more than 12 feet long, by 7 feet wide - a large banqueting tablecloth. It probably survived because it would only have been used for very special occasions - and as far as I can tell, its owner wasn't short of table linens!
...NB although I've assumed an Irish origin, given the date and provenance, this could have been Scottish linen. I simply don't know.
The pattern involves some kind of classical theme: Greek or Roman Gods? There are certainly various garlands, including laurels. The design is somewhat sharper than the other cloth I'm listing this week. The surface is a bit 'bobbly' here and there, and somewhat thin, but this is good quality white linen. It is clean, and soft. Professional pressing and perhaps starching would give it the characteristic sheen and a bit more body. I can't find out if this was commemorating any particular event, but could it have been the Greek Wars of Independence?
As well as the measurement written on the cloth, there are the initials EH, which, like the other cloth I'm listing this week, almost certainly means that it belonged to Eliza Hagart.
These tablelinens were part of a huge collection of old Irish or possibly Scottish linen damask tablecloths andnapkins which had been stored away in an old Ayrshire country house – althoughI don’t know which one. I have been working my way through them, but still have some left. I'm hoping to sell them this year.
There was an Eliza Ellice, whose name is woven into some of the napkins and cloths, born in 1817 or1818. But I think this particular cloth belonged to her parents: Miss ElizabethStewart and Thomas Campbell Hagartof Bantaskine, Stirling. Elizabeth – a celebrated beauty of that day - was the daughter of Thomas Stewart of the ‘Glasgow field’, who was a calico printer – a lucrative trade in those days when brightlyprinted cottons were much in fashion. She was sometimes referred to as ‘thebeautiful Miss Stewart of the Field.’ Ihaven’t been able to find out exactly what the ‘field’ was, but it may havebeen a bleach field, given the textile connection. The industrial revolutionwas well under way in the west of Scotland and some of the older tablecloths - including this one, I think - must have belonged to the beautiful Miss Stewart who became Mistress Hagart. She would have been Eliza Hagart in 1818 or 1820 if her daughter was born around that time so I think this was one of her cloths.
I'll include a full provenance as far as I know it, with the cloth.
...NB although I've assumed an Irish origin, given the date and provenance, this could have been Scottish linen. I simply don't know.
The pattern involves some kind of classical theme: Greek or Roman Gods? There are certainly various garlands, including laurels. The design is somewhat sharper than the other cloth I'm listing this week. The surface is a bit 'bobbly' here and there, and somewhat thin, but this is good quality white linen. It is clean, and soft. Professional pressing and perhaps starching would give it the characteristic sheen and a bit more body. I can't find out if this was commemorating any particular event, but could it have been the Greek Wars of Independence?
As well as the measurement written on the cloth, there are the initials EH, which, like the other cloth I'm listing this week, almost certainly means that it belonged to Eliza Hagart.
These tablelinens were part of a huge collection of old Irish or possibly Scottish linen damask tablecloths andnapkins which had been stored away in an old Ayrshire country house – althoughI don’t know which one. I have been working my way through them, but still have some left. I'm hoping to sell them this year.
There was an Eliza Ellice, whose name is woven into some of the napkins and cloths, born in 1817 or1818. But I think this particular cloth belonged to her parents: Miss ElizabethStewart and Thomas Campbell Hagartof Bantaskine, Stirling. Elizabeth – a celebrated beauty of that day - was the daughter of Thomas Stewart of the ‘Glasgow field’, who was a calico printer – a lucrative trade in those days when brightlyprinted cottons were much in fashion. She was sometimes referred to as ‘thebeautiful Miss Stewart of the Field.’ Ihaven’t been able to find out exactly what the ‘field’ was, but it may havebeen a bleach field, given the textile connection. The industrial revolutionwas well under way in the west of Scotland and some of the older tablecloths - including this one, I think - must have belonged to the beautiful Miss Stewart who became Mistress Hagart. She would have been Eliza Hagart in 1818 or 1820 if her daughter was born around that time so I think this was one of her cloths.
I'll include a full provenance as far as I know it, with the cloth.
