minster. The canopy does not appear to have been in common use. Some of the beds had mosquito nets.[1] The valances, which were bands of cloth suspended from the sides of the bed to the floor, were made of linsey-woolsey; drugget, a species of cloth of French production containing gold and silver threads; or serge, a scarlet cloth, which, like all the cloths of this period which were dyed this color, was dear in price; or kidderminster, flowered green and white. The pillows and pillow-biers were manufactured of white linen or canvas, and the former were stuffed with feathers. The sheets were of oznaburg, canvas, brown or white holland. The most common blanket was known as the duffield. The outer covering consisted either of a coverlet, which was green or white in color, or a quilt of mixed hues. Sometimes it was of leather.[2] The rugs were made of worsted yarn or cotton, and were white, red, green, or blue in color. In winter, the warming-pan was used as a means of taking the chill from the sheets, this household article being manufactured of brass. The couch, which was the forerunner of the sofa, served the purpose both of a bed and a reclining seat; it seems to have been made of different materials, references being found to wainscot, hide, tanned leather, embroidered Russian leather, and Turkey-worked couches. The last formed a part of the furniture in the houses of the wealthiest planters.
Prominent in the chamber were the trunk and the chest. Of the former, there were the plain leather, the
- ↑ References to mosquito cloth in the inventories are very numerous. Among the articles of personal property owned by Thomas Batte at his death were fourteen yards of this cloth. Records of Henrico County, vol. 1688-1697, p. 234, Va. State Library.
- ↑ Records of Lancaster County, original vol. 1690-1709, p. 21, contains a reference to a leather coverlet.
