[MR] Cotton cloth

[Sarah J. Toich - Simone]

Greetings unto the tavern:

I cannot argue when and where cotton first came into Europe, however I love
the story of the Œvegetable lamb¹. Supposedly Nearchus, an officer of
Alexander the Great wrote an account of an Indian shrub bearing bunches of
wool from which natives make garments.  And
ŒHenry Lee in his work, The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary; A Curious Fable of
the Cotton Plant (London, 1887), claims that this curious myth actually
originated in the early descriptions of the cotton plant. Lee stated it
thus: Tracing the growth and transition of this story of the lamb-plant from
a rumour of a curious fact into a detailed history of an absurd fiction,
there can be no doubt that it origiated in early descriptions of the cotton
plant, and the introduction of cotton from India into Western Asia and the
adjoining parts of Eastern Europe¹. (National Agricultural Library USDA) .

Portugal opened up the Indian market after 1497 with the successful voyage
of de Gama. We know that the yarn for cotton was being imported in to
England in the 16th c. to be mixed with linen and wool.  Dutch weavers at
Norwich 'presented a stuffe calling it bombazine' a cotton and linen
material and in 1586 all-cotton Œfustians¹ were being woven of Turkish yarn.
(Fustian- a strong cotton and linen fabric with a slight nap). The Letters
and Papers of Henry VIII,  1541 include a letter concerning the arrival of
merchants from Spain and Portugal selling 'callocowte' cloth. A will from
Somerset in 1545 lists a pair of 'shetes of calicowe' and the Hatfield MSS
lists 'sleeves of cambric and calico cloth for plucking out of French
sleeves'.  

 The British East India company was founded in 1599 and England began
importing large amounts of 'calicoes' (cotton cloth from Calicut in the East
Indies). Manchester weavers are noted by 1642 as buying cotton yarns from
Cyprus and Smyrna, working it into 'dimities, fustians, and vermillions'
which were then sold  to the London markets. Lancashire produced 40,000
pieces of cotton fustians in 1620. (Linthicum) This scale of production
didn't happen overnight.

Another reference: A letter to the Allepo Factors June 3, 1586 'for cotton
yarne we would have you send us 60 baggs at the least, weareof some 20 or 30
may be the biggest you can gett, and the other the fynest you can get for
the great serveth for candles and the smaulest for fustians' (Landsdowne MS,
241, fol 392b)

Going back in time from Henry VIII....The Wardrobe accounts for Edward IV
refer to socks made of fustian. Margery Linthicum writes:  ³Henry VI¹s
Statutes at Large states that fustians were brought from beyond the sea
unshorn, and were greatly used for doublets amoung the common people of the
realm. By Edward IV fustian had been forbidden to persons with income less
than fourty shillings a year". And the earliest English reference to fustian
is in an inventory of vestements of St. Paul's Cathedral from 1295 where a
casula of fustian is listed.


I'll be out there searching for earlier references. I¹m tracing a 712AD
reference to cotton production in Spain....


Sincerely,
Duchess Simone


> Mary et all, 
> 
> I'm afraid that your theory regarding cotton is
> flawed. Cotton as a fabric was not in major use in the
> period that the majority of us study (600-1600) in
> Europe. While types of cotton were in use for cheaper
> clothing in certain areas of the Middle East, cotton
> itself was simply not a viable option for Europeans
> because, for one thing, the cost.
> 
> To respond to another poster who quoted that Elizabeth
> was presented with the fabric, as proof that it was in
> use for the general public is just as far a jump. I'm
> quite certain that President Bush has been gifted with
> some items that I will never come into contact with
> myself. :-)
> 
> The idea that "well they had X in this time and place
> and it was earlier in history than the middle ages so
> they _must_ have used it and therefore I can justify
> my cotton teetunic with the store bought metallic
> trim" is exactly the sort of anti-scholarship that LH
> groups take us to task for.
> 
> The 'Generi-Celt' syndrome of the SCA I?ve heard it
> called. ;-) "I'm a Spanish Gypsy Egyptian Pirate who
> fighting in my 14c helm with my katana." Rather like
> Sean Connery in Highlander, come to think of it... ;-)
> 
> The primary fabrics for most folks in the middle ages
> were wool for outerwear and linen for underwear. Silk
> too was used, but talking about that gets me into the
> whole argument about what sorts of linen, silk, and
> wool were actually used and that is a different
> argument altogether.
> 
> That being said, I have alot of cotton in my wardrobe,
> like most Scadains. Likewise, I?m working to replace
> as much of it with more suitable fabrics. It's a work
> in progress. Cotton is cheap, and there are cotton
> fabrics out there that approach the correct look that
> we are going for. However, linen breathes better and
> is what the mediaeval people wore. So why not
> construct your clothing from it if you can afford to?
> 
> The Sca certainly won't reach LH standards in my
> lifetime, but striving towards that goal together and
> helping each other get there is certainly a worthy
> goal. 
> 
> Let's work together towards that shall we? I am not an
> expert in clothing for the entirety of our periods of
> study; however, I do have some base knowledge, and
> would be available for questions or I could point you
> towards someone that has more information that me. I'm
> sure that my brothers and sisters Laurels would make
> the same offer of help if asked. Please do.
> 
> Kind Regards to all,
> Bryce de Byram, OL