Damask Banqueting Tablecloth

My daughter-in-law Meredith asked for the gift of an early 20^th century white Damask banqueting tablecloth that had been owned by my great-aunt. Perhaps your family set tables this past season using the “canvas” of a fine tablecloth for the “artwork” – the meal prepared at home. 

The history of the tablecloth involves art history, the Industrial Revolution, the Southern Plantation, the invention of the sewing machine, the discovery of artificial dyes, and social status in Europe. Seeing the tablecloth back to 103AD, the Roman poet Martial mentioned its use in the early Roman dining hall, laid upon long reclining benches. These long measures of linen were called Mantele. Each Roman carried his own Mappa (napkin). That is, unless a Spartan was being entertained: he would carry a piece of dough (apogmadalie) to clean his face and hands. Later this became the tradition of sopping up spills with sliced bread. 

Art history helps to locate a date in which most households in Europe used linen for dining. Consider DaVinci’s The Last Supper, painted in the late 15^th century, where Christ and the Apostles dine on Umbrian linen, as fabric historians tell us. Although we cannot surmise the use of linen tablecloths in Christ’s era, we can assume general use by the late 15^th century. Europeans used tablecloths of white linen or damask. (Interestingly, the origins of Italian linens occurred in dressings for the altar; no accident, as DaVinci would have known.)

Napkins are seen in late 15^th century art as large pieces of cloth, each square devoted to one diner, until the adaptation of the fork, which was NOT widely used until the 17^th century. The neater eating experience rendered by the fork meant that napkins became smaller. Etiquette of the 19^th century specified a napkin’s size at 35×45” for formal occasions. 

The linens pictured here are of French origin: Belgian and French linens have traditionally been top quality. In 15^th century France, fabric historians note the use of table linen in the devotional book Très Riches Heures, in which the Duc de Berry is feted upon a white linen banqueting cloth. 

From the 15^th to the 16^th century white Damask was de rigueur in all royal courts and great family houses in Europe. Flanders was the center for production of Damask (loomed by hand). Buckingham Palace’s banquet table is equipped with seven Damask white tablecloths each 223 feet long, woven in Flanders. Fine tablecloths were displayed at all the World’s Fairs and Expositions throughout Europe. 

By the 19^th century, most upper to middle class households used white linen tablecloths, which, by the etiquette of the day, had a six inch drop around all sides for casual dining and up to a 15-inch drop for formal dining. The art of the 18^th and 19^th century shows us domestic and courtly scenes using white linen tablecloths, a status symbol: if a household could afford to use white linen tablecloths, they were wealthy enough for a laundress. Historians often question the reason for the English tradition of longer (sometimes to the floor) tablecloths; was this to shield the eyes from the ‘sexually explicit’ uncovered LEGS of the table, or was it to protect the expensive furniture? 

The American South supplied Victorian England with the raw materials to make such tablecloths, which were part of every bride’s list and included in bride’s dowries and passed down (as my tablecloth was to me). The English textile industry was enhanced in the mid-19^th century upon the invention of chemically produced synthetic dyes. Adding to this was the mass production of tablecloths allowed by the invention of the sewing machine. America rose to prominence in the textile industry through the 19^th century after the first textile mill was opened in Rhode Island in 1790. The U.S. Government encouraged the boost in textile production by imposing tariffs on imported textiles. The American labor movement was birthed in the textile mills of the East Coast.

Thus, European and American tables enjoyed at least four centuries of white linen, until the mid-19^th century English Arts and Crafts movement, which popularized the philosophy of handwork. Tablecloths are hand embroidered or made of lace, and NOT white. The subsequent era (Art Nouveau period) celebrated color in textiles, especially the softer pastels, and ushered in an artistic respect for design of household objects.

Meredith set a breakfast table on Aunt Frances’ white Damask tablecloth, using my grandmother’s porcelain and her best friend’s silver flatware. I wonder if that tradition is returning.