{{Short description|Woollen fabric of the Early Modern period}} '''Perpetuana''' was a woollen fabric made and used in early modern England and elsewhere for clothing and furnishings including bed hangings. It was lighter than broadcloth and resembled serge, some varieties had a glossy finish.<ref>Clive Edwards, "Perpetuana", ''Encyclopedia of Furnishing Textiles, Floorcoverings and Home Furnishing Practices, 1200–1950'' (Lund Humphreys, 2007), p. 159: Eric Kerridge, ''Textile Manufactures in Early Modern England'' (Manchester, 1985), p. 118.</ref> The name seems to advertise its long-lasting qualities.<ref>M. Channing Linthicum, ''Costume in the Drama of Shakespeare and his Contemporaries'' (Oxford, 1936), pp. 83–4.</ref> A fabric called "sempiternum" or "sempiterna" for the same reason was perhaps a similar weave.<ref>Jane Whittle & Elizabeth Griffiths, ''Consumption and Gender in the Early Seventeenth-Century Household: The World of Alice Le Strange'' (Oxford, 2012), p. 120.</ref> Like another English-made fabric "Penniston", perpetuana was used for the clothing of slaves in Jamaica and the Caribbean.<ref>Steeve O. Buckridge, ''African Lace-bark in the Caribbean: The Construction of Race, Class, and Gender'' (Bloomsbury, 2016), p. 136.</ref><ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/02/only-surviving-fragment-of-slave-cloth-found-in-derbyshire-record-office 'Only surviving fragment of 'slave' cloth found in Derbyshire record office', ''Guardian'', 2 April 2023]</ref>
==New drapery== The cloth was one of the "new draperies" first made in England at Norwich, Colchester, and Taunton in the last half of the 16th century.<ref>M. Channing Linthicum, ''Costume in the Drama of Shakespeare and his Contemporaries'' (Oxford, 1936), p. 83.</ref><ref>Eliot Howard, [http://cat.essex.ac.uk/reports/EAS-report-0030.pdf 'Colchester Bays, Says and Perpetuanas', ''Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society'', vol. 8, 1903]</ref><ref>Stuart F. Elton, ''Cloth Seals: An Illustrated Guide to the Identification of Lead Seals'' (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2017), p. 187.</ref>
Perpetuana was permitted as an export to India by Charles I in 1631.<ref>''The East Indian chronologist'' (Calcutta, 1801), p. 6.</ref> Large quantities of English perpetuana were shipped to Hamburg in 1640.<ref>Thomas Leng, ''Fellowship and Freedom: The Merchant Adventurers and the Restructuring of English Commerce'' (Oxford, 2020), p. 87.</ref> Also known as "perpets", perpetuana fabrics were made in France and Holland (Leiden). An English author in 1713 considered that the English version of the cloth had better success as an export to Spain than the French, as it was cheaper and possibly of better quality.<ref>''Mercator; or, Commerce retrieved'', 106 (26 January 1713).</ref> By this time, Crediton and Sandford in Devon had become centres for weaving perpetuana and other woollens.<ref>William George Hoskins, ''Industry, Trade and People in Exeter, 1688-1800'' (Manchester, 1935), p. 40.</ref>
==As country clothing== An Edinburgh tailor Patrick Nimmo supplied a doublet and socks or hose of "sad perpetuana" to the Marquess of Hamilton in 1605.<ref>Margaret H. B. Sanderson, ''Mary Stewart's People'' (Edinburgh: James Thin, 1987), p. 88.</ref> The account book of William Fitzwilliam of Milton Hall includes the making of two pairs of perpetuana hose trimmed with gold and silver lace around the year 1610.<ref>Kennet Gibson, [https://archive.org/details/acommentuponpar00antogoog/page/n148/mode/2up ''Parochial history of Castor'' (London, 1819), p. 137]</ref> A green perpetuana doublet was made for Richard Bagot, a son of Walter Bagot of Blithfield, in 1611.<ref>''HMC 4th Report: Bagot'', p. 343.</ref> Accounts for the clothes of Thomas Myddleton at Chirk Castle in 1612 include "sea-green" perpetuana.<ref>''Chirk Castle Accounts'' (St Albans, 1908), p. 6.</ref>
Two park keepers in Thomas Campion's entertainment at Caversham Park on 27 April 1613 for Anne of Denmark were "formally attired in green perpetuana".<ref>John Nichols, [https://archive.org/details/progressesproces02nich_0/page/632 ''Progresses of James the First'', vol. 2 (London, 1828), p. 632]</ref> Perpetuana was suitable for country workmen and servants. Lord William Howard of Naworth Castle bought broadcloth in November 1617 and six yards of lighter green perpetuana in June 1618 for the clothes of his servant George Armstrong.<ref>George Ornsby, ''Selections from the Household Books of the Lord William Howard'' (London, 1878), pp. 100–1.</ref> In 1640, Sir William Calley of Chiseldon and Burderop Park, a retired cloth merchant, asked his steward Richard Harvey to buy "broad black perpetuana" to make suits for three servants.<ref>Susan Vincent, ''Dressing the elite: Clothes in Early Modern England'' (Berg, 2003), pp. 61, 106.</ref>
=== Female elite costume === In February 1616, Annas Elphinstone, Countess of Sutherland, widow of John Gordon, 13th Earl of Sutherland, wrote from Dunrobin Castle to a tailor in Edinburgh, asking him to send fine and light-coloured perpetuana to make a gown for her daughter Elizabeth Gordon, soon to be Lady Frendraught.<ref>E. Dunbar Dunbar, [https://archive.org/details/sociallifeinform02dunb/page/74/mode/2up?q=countess ''Social life in former days'', 2 (London, 1866), pp. 74–76]</ref>
==On the stage== There are references to perpetuana in 17th-century drama. In Ben Jonson's ''Cynthia's Revels'' of 1600, a character Hedon suggests that courtiers should wear silks rather than perpetuana, and the gentleman ushers of the court ought to exclude such tough "terrible coarse rags" and "rubbing devices" from the royal presence.<ref>Ben Jonson, ''The Workes of Beniamin Jonson'' (London, 1616), p. 209, III, ii, 28–31.</ref> Perpetuana was the name of a character in John Marston's 1599 play ''Histriomastix'', (at first) the wife of a merchant "Velure", a French word for velvet.<ref>George L. Geckle, ''John Marston's Drama: Themes, Images, Sources'' (Fairleigh Dickinson, 1980), p. 49 fn. 9.</ref> A textile-based insult in Barnabe Barnes' ''The Devil's Charter'' of 1607 has the alliterative "My perpetuana pander". Black perpetuana was used to make a costume for a madman in Thomas Campion's ''Masque of Lords and Honourable Maids'', performed at the wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Frederick V of the Palatinate.<ref>Frederic Madden, [https://archive.org/details/s2id13276850/page/385/mode/2up 'Warrant for the Apparel for the Marriage of the Princess Elizabeth', ''Archaeologia'', 26 (1836), p. 385]</ref>
==Bed hangings== Despite negative associations presented on the stage, perpetuana was chosen for warm winter clothes and bed curtains by aristocrats. In 1606, William Cavendish, a son of Bess of Hardwick, bought a suit of green perpetuana for his teenage son, also William Cavendish.<ref>Peter Edwards, [https://retailhistory.wordpress.com/2020/09/17/provincial/#_edn28 CHORD blog: Conspicuous Consumption in Early Modern Provincial England] citing, Chatsworth, Cavendish accounts, CA, H23/31r, 175r.</ref> There were four perpetuana beds decorated with lace with matching chairs and stools at Petworth House in 1635.<ref>Jeremy Wood, 'The Architectural Patronage of the 10th Earl of Northumberland', John Bold & Edward Cheney, ''English Architecture Public & Private: Essays for Kerry Downes'' (Hambledon, 1993), p. 58: G. R. Batho, ''Household Papers of Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland'' (Camden Society, 1962), p. 118.</ref> In 1639 at Gosfield Hall in Essex there was a French (style) bed of green perpetuana, and a red perpetuana bed in a nursery.<ref>Pamela Clabburn, ''The National Trust Book of Furnishing Textiles'' (Penguin, 1989), p. 251.</ref> Henrietta Maria owned some crimson damask window curtains lined with red perpetuana.<ref>Oliver Millar, 'Inventories and Valuations of the King's Goods 1649–1651', ''The Volume of the Walpole Society'', vol. 43 (1972), p. 128.</ref> Blue perpetuana hangings and a blue perpetuana bed at Ham House were trimmed with gilt Spanish leather.<ref>Clive Edwards, "Perpetuana", ''Encyclopedia of Furnishing Textiles, Floorcoverings and Home Furnishing Practices, 1200–1950'' (Lund Humphreys, 2007), p. 159: Peter Thornton & Maurice Tomlin, ''The Furnishing and Decoration of Ham House'' (Furniture History Society, 1980), pp. 16, 22.</ref>
==In church== Green perpetuana was used to back or "bottom" a cushion with green silk fringes for the pulpit of St Laurence's at Ludlow in 1621, and to make a decorative border for the pulpit.<ref>Llewellyn Jones, 'Churchwardens Accounts of Ludlow', ''Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological and Natural History Society'', 2nd series vol. 2 part 1 (Shrewsbury, 1890), pp. 122–3.</ref> Blue perpetuana was chosen for a new chapel screen at King's College, Cambridge in 1633.<ref>Thomas John Proctor Carter, ''King's College Chapel: Its History and Present Condition'' (London, 1867) p. 64.</ref>
==Perpetuana and slavery== Richard Cocks an officer of the English East India Company stationed at Hirado in Japan received a bale of English perpetuana from the cargo of the ''Adviz'' in 1617.<ref>Edward Maunde Thompson, ''Diary of Ricard Cocks'', vol. 1 (London: Hakluyt Society, 1883), p. 293.</ref> Hard-wearing perpetuana was exported to America.<ref>Robert DuPlessis, ''The Material Atlantic: Clothing, Commerce, and Colonization in the Atlantic'' (Cambridge, 2016), pp. 63–4.</ref> The cloth was exchanged for slaves at Ouidah in Benin and at Accra in Ghana.<ref>Lars Sundström, ''The Exchange Economy of Pre-colonial Tropical Africa'' (London, 1974), p. 174.</ref> Olfert Dapper, a 17th-century writer, mentioned that men of the Guinea Coast wore outfits made from a variety of fabrics or stuffs including perpetuana in his ''Description of Africa'' (1668).<ref>''Atlas Geographus: For Africa'', vol. 4 (London, 1714), p. 414.</ref> West Africans rejected plain blue and black perpetuanas offered for sale in 1660, preferring brighter colours.<ref>Giorgio Riello, ''Cotton: The Fabric that Made the Modern World'' (Cambridge, 2013), p. 139.</ref> In the 18th-century clothing for slaves in Jamaica was made with perpetuana fabric.<ref>Steeve Buckridge, [https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789047409380/B9789047409380_s013.xml 'Dress: From Slavery to Freedom among Jamaican Colonised Women, 1790–1890', Marc Kleijwegt, ''The Faces of Freedom: The Manumission and Emancipation of Slaves in Old World and New World Slavery'' (Brill, 2006), p. 236 fn. 12]</ref> Female slaves on several estates had petticoats of perpetuana.<ref>Edward Kamau Brathwaite, 'The 'Folk' Culture of the Slaves', Gad J. Heuman & James Walvin, ''The Slavery Reader'' (Routledge, 2003), p. 378.</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
{{fabric}}
== External links == * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kC_SAU8VyRs Talk: Mike Brett, The Sandford Woollen Industry and Perpetuana, youtube]
Category:Woven fabrics