Mockado

{{Short description|Imitation velvet fabric}}  '''Mockado''' (also '''moquette,<ref>Moquette has the connotation of a woolen mixture commonly used for carpeting and upholstery.</ref> moucade''') is a woollen pile fabric made in imitation of silk velvet from the mid-sixteenth century.<ref>{{cite book|editor=Jenkins, David|title=The Cambridge History of Western Textiles|location=Cambridge, UK|publisher=Cambridge University Press|date=2003|isbn= 0-521-34107-8|page=434}}</ref><ref name="Dictionary of Traded Goods">{{Cite web|title=Dictionary of Traded Goods and Commodities, 1550-1820|date=2007|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=58820|access-date=11 April 2010}}.</ref><ref name="Textiles in America">{{cite book|title=Textiles in America, 1650-1870: a dictionary based on original documents|first=Florence M.|last=Montgomery|publisher=W. W. Norton|date=2007|edition=2nd|page=295|isbn=978-0-393-73224-5}}</ref> Mockado was usually constructed with a woollen pile on a linen or worsted wool warp and woollen weft, although the ground fabric could be any combination of wool, linen, and silk. Mockado was used for furnishings and carpeting, and also for clothing such as doublets, farthingales, and kirtles.<ref name="Dictionary of Traded Goods" /><ref name="Tudor Tailor">{{cite book|last=Mikhaila|first=Ninya|author2=Jane Malcolm-Davies|title=The Tudor Tailor|publisher=Batsford|location=London|date=2006|page=37|isbn=0-7134-8985-5}}</ref><ref name="Textiles in America 2">Montgomery (2007) pp. xiv-xv</ref>

Mockado was introduced to England from Flanders in the mid-sixteenth century. Dutch and Walloon weavers fleeing Spanish rule in the Low Countries were creating mockadoes and other fabrics combining silk and linen with combed woollens in the weaving center of Norwich by 1571. Varieties included plain, with an even pile, and "tuft" or voided mockado. Mockadoes were woven in solid or changeable colours, and were sometimes stamped with patterns in imitation of more expensive Utrecht velvets<ref name="Dictionary of Traded Goods" /><ref name="Textiles in America 2"/><ref name="Early Modern">{{cite book|title=Textile Manufactures in Early Modern England|first=Eric|last=Kerridge|date=1988|publisher=Manchester University Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YzS8AAAAIAAJ|page=68|isbn=9780719017674 }}</ref> Mockado was always a rough fabric, and by the 1580s, the term "mockado" was synonymous with "inferior" or "tawdry".<ref name="Dictionary of Traded Goods" /> In discussing the old English tradition of new clothes at Easter, folklorist Peter Opie cites Thomas Lodge's 1596 pamphlet ''Wits Miserie'' : <blockquote>"The farmer that was contented in times past with his Russet Frocke & Mockado sleeues, now sels a Cow against Easter to buy him silken geere for his Credit".<ref>{{cite journal|first=Peter|last=Opie|title=Proposals for a Dictionary, Arranged on Historical Principles, of English Traditional Lore|journal=Folklore|volume=75|date=1964|issue=2 |page=79|doi=10.1080/0015587X.1964.9716951 }}</ref></blockquote>

In the seventeenth century, the term '''mockado ends''' was used for a wool yarn, probably a worsted yarn similar to crewel yarn of that period, likely used for embroidery and making braids and fringes.<ref name="Dictionary of Traded Goods" />

Mockadoes continued in use for furnishings such as wall hangings, chair covers, and stools, as well as carpeting. A patent was issued in England in 1741 for a "new invention of making carpeting commonly called French carpeting or Moccadoes and in France ''moucades'' or ''moquets''."<ref name="Textiles in America" />

==References== {{reflist}}

Category:Pile fabrics Category:Yarn