{{Short description|English knotted-and-cut pile textile}} {{Infobox art movement | name = Turkeywork | image = File:Turkey-work chair MET 85C ACF124R7.jpg | alt = | caption = Turkeywork chair, between 1680 and 1700, American frame and English export textile, The MET.<ref name="MET-chair">{{cite web|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/1619|title=Turkey-work chair|accessdate=16 May 2018}}</ref> The original black background of this textile has almost entirely worn away.<ref name="Safford70">{{Cite book| publisher = Metropolitan Museum of Art| isbn = 978-1-58839-233-6| last1 = Safford| first1 = Frances Gruber| title = American Furniture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art| date = 2007| page = [https://archive.org/details/americanfurnitur0002metr/page/70 70]| url = https://archive.org/details/americanfurnitur0002metr/page/70}}</ref> | yearsactive = 16th to mid-18th centuries | influences = Oriental textiles | country = England }}
'''Turkeywork''' (alternately '''turkey-work''' or '''turkey work'''; sometimes called '''setwork''' and '''Norwich work''') is a knotted-and-cut pile furnishing textile produced in England from the sixteenth to the mid-eighteenth centuries. Turkeywork was used for table carpets, cupboard carpets, cushions, and especially for matched upholstery sets for chair seats and backs.<ref name="MET-chair" /><ref name="Montgomery">{{Cite book| last1=Montgomery | first1 = Florence M. | year= 2007 |title = Textiles in America, 1650-1870 | edition= Reprint |location = New York | publisher = W. W. Norton | isbn = 978-0393732245|page =368}}</ref><ref name="AAT">{{cite web|url=http://vocab.getty.edu/page/aat/300227914|title=Turkeywork|website=Getty Art & Architecture Thesaurua|accessdate=16 May 2018}}</ref><ref name="Swain">Swain, Margaret. "The Turkey-work Chairs of Holyrood House" in {{Cite book| publisher = W. W. Norton & Company| isbn = 978-0-393-02469-2| last = Cooke| first = Edward S.| title = Upholstery in America & Europe: From the Seventeenth Century to World War I.| date = 1987|pages=51–63}}</ref><ref name="Nylander">{{Cite book| edition = Revised| publisher = Wiley| isbn = 978-0-471-14379-6| last = Nylander| first = Jane C.| title = Fabrics for Historic Buildings: A Guide to Selecting Reproduction Fabrics| location = New York| date = 1989-12-01| page = [https://archive.org/details/fabricsforhistor0000nyla/page/286 286]| url = https://archive.org/details/fabricsforhistor0000nyla/page/286}}</ref>
== Production == Turkeywork was produced by professional weavers in England from the 16th century.<ref name="Swain"/><ref name="Safford65">{{Cite book| publisher = Metropolitan Museum of Art| isbn = 978-1-58839-233-6| last1 = Safford| first1 = Frances Gruber| title = American Furniture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art| date = 2007| page = [https://archive.org/details/americanfurnitur0002metr/page/65 65]| url = https://archive.org/details/americanfurnitur0002metr/page/65}}</ref> Short lengths or thrums of worsted wool were hand-knotted using the Turkish or Ghiordes knot (also called the symmetrical knot) on a linen or hemp-fibre warp.<ref name="Montgomery" /><ref name="AAT" /> The colorful wool was shorn to produce a dense, even pile. Designs originally imitated so-called 'Turkey carpets',<ref name="Safford65" /> the general name in Early Modern England for imported carpets of Middle Eastern origin,<ref name="AAT2">{{cite web|url=http://vocab.getty.edu/page/aat/300187133|title=Turkey carpets|website=Getty Art & Architecture Thesaurus|accessdate=16 May 2018}}</ref> which became popular for furniture covers (and less often, floor carpets) in the 16th century. It is sometimes said that Early Modern turkeywork upholstery is a form of needlework,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/art/Turkey-work|title=Turkey work|website=Encyclopedia Britannica Online|accessdate=16 May 2018}}</ref> but this is no longer generally accepted.<ref name="Swain" />
left|thumb|Turkish, Ghiordes, or symmetrical knot Economic historian Eric Kerridge records commercial production of turkeywork carpets as early as 1553 in Windsor, and "in Norwich in 1583, in York in 1595, and in Bradford in 1639".<ref name="Kerridge41">{{cite book | last = Kerridge | first = Eric | title = Textile Manufactures in Early Modern England | publisher = Manchester Univ. Press | location = Manchester | year = 1985 | isbn = 9780719026324|page=41 }}</ref> These carpets were used to cover tables, hutches, and similar furniture, as well as for cushions and chair seats. Turkeywork was generally too expensive for use as floor carpets, "for each knot had to be formed separately by laying a thrum across two warp ends, folding it back under and inwards, and drawing its two ends up between the warps."<ref name="Kerridge41" /> However, for "chairs given hard use in eating, meeting, and parade rooms, it formed an especially satisfactory covering, being both durable and colorful."<ref name="Montgomery99">{{Cite book| last1=Montgomery | first1 = Florence M. | year= 2007 |title = Textiles in America, 1650-1870 | edition= Reprint |location = New York | publisher = W. W. Norton | isbn = 978-0393732245|page =99}}</ref> Turkeywork chairs were ordered by the dozen for meeting and committee rooms in the Palace of Whitehall and Holyrood Palace,<ref name="Swain" /> and turkeywork coverings for seating furniture were exported to both Europe and Colonial America. The 1658 inventory of a Boston merchant includes "2 turkie bottoms and backs for chayres", and a 1685 inventory in Philadelphia includes "1 doz. and 6 new backs & seats of Turkey work for Chairs".<ref name="Safford65" />
Turkeywork upholstery slowly fell out of fashion in favor of caned seating, associated with the William and Mary style of the early 18th century.<ref name="Swain" /><ref name="Montgomery99" /> The output of the turkeywork industry in its heyday had been prodigious. A 1698 petition to the king to outlaw the making of cane chairs in Britain to protect jobs asserted that before caning became popular, "there were yearly made and Vended in this Kingdom above five thousand dozen of ''Set-work'', (commonly called ''Turkey-work Chairs,'' though made in England)."<ref name="Swain55">Swain, Margaret. "The Turkey-work Chairs of Holyrood House" in {{Cite book| publisher = W. W. Norton & Company| isbn = 978-0-393-02469-2| last = Cooke| first = Edward S.| title = Upholstery in America & Europe: From the Seventeenth Century to World War I.| date = 1987|page=55}}</ref>
== Embroidery ==
In embroidery and needlepoint, '''Turkey work stitch''' or '''plush stitch''' is a Turkish knot worked with needle and thread on cloth or canvas. The pile may be left looped or cut to form a plush surface.<ref name="Gostelow">{{Cite book| publisher = Scribner| isbn = 978-0-684-14230-2| last = Gostelow| first = Mary| title = A World of Embroidery| location = New York| date = 1975| page = [https://archive.org/details/worldofembroider00gost/page/445 445]| url-access = registration| url = https://archive.org/details/worldofembroider00gost/page/445}}</ref>
== References == {{reflist}}
== External links == {{commons category|Turkeywork}} * [https://www.mfa.org/collections/object/turkey-work-chair-39031 Extant Turkeywork chair], c. 1675, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston * [https://www.artfund.org/supporting-museums/art-weve-helped-buy/artwork/9781/pair-of-turkey-work-chairs Pair of Turkeywork chairs], the Geffrye Museum of the Home, via ArtFund
Category:Textile industry in England Category:Upholstery Category:British rugs and carpets