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Napkin
Unknown - Enlarge image
Napkin
- Place of origin:
Scotland, Great Britain (probably, made)
- Date:
1708 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Unknown (production)
- Materials and Techniques:
Linen damask
- Credit Line:
Given by Maj. G. F. B. E. Massy MC
- Museum number:
T.3-1931
- Gallery location:
British Galleries, room 56d, case 6, shelf DR4
Object Type
This napkin is from the household of Charles Hope, 1st Earl of Hopetoun (1681-1742) and his wife, born Lady Henrietta Johnstone. It would have been part of a set of napkins matching a tablecloth. The Earl and Countess had married in 1699, so the linen was not woven to commemorate the wedding, but its quality suggests that by 1708 they were maintaining an affluent household in which fashionable luxuries were used.
Ownership & Use
Late 17th and early 18th-century Scottish inventories emphasise the importance of table linen, known as napery, in households. Often there were more napkins and tablecloths than there were sheets and pillowcases. Stocks of napery could be built up over many years, and were bequeathed in wills.
Making & Trading
The first record confirming the weaving of linen damask in Scotland is an Act of 1693 stating 'it shall be lawful to make all sorts of damask for table linen'. But Scotland had an important coarse linen-weaving industry, providing a manufacturing base out of which it could be developed. Linen damask appears to have been attempted earlier in the century. Damask table linen had been legally imported, or smuggled, from Flanders and The Netherlands, and the home industry tried to earn a share of this market. The weaving of custom-made damask like this, incorporating the client's name and, where appropriate, coat of arms seems to have been a significant part of the industry.
