Carnation heads and small sprigs run in even vertical channels through 'Norwich Calimanco', sourced from a length of glazed worsted, ca. 1750, in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Each element was hand-traced from the museum's photograph of the object to hold the stepped geometry the loom imposed on the wool. Wide ground between the channels gives a room vertical structure without weight, and the flowers read from across it.
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The Source
Norwich had wool and wanted silk money, so it engineered worsted cloth to catch the light.
They combed long-staple wool straight, spun it tight, and finished the woven yards under heated rollers or rubbed the face down with a stone. Norwich weavers built the floral sprigs directly into the worsted grid on the loom, which is why the petals step along the warp and weft rather than curve smoothly.
The result was an affordable, hard-wearing fabric that shed dirt and mimicked the luster of dress silk. Calimanco went into gowns, quilted petticoats, and men's waistcoats across England and the American colonies. When Defoe itemized the components of an ordinary countryman's suit—Yorkshire cloth, Berkshire lining, Devizes breeches—the waistcoat was callamanco from Norwich. It wore hard and sold in volume for a century.
Ordinarily, a length went to a tailor, wore out, and was cut down a second time for a bedcover. Eight feet three inches came off a loom around 1750 and escaped that life entirely. The Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired the uncut length in 2017 with funds from the exchange of objects bequeathed by Alfred Duane Pell (accession 2017.268), alongside a matching second length (accession 2017.269).
Nobody cut it, so the whole pattern is still there. It is the pattern drawn here.
The Specifications
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Source: Length of wool Calimanco, ca. 1750, British, Norwich. Wool, woven. Overall 99½ × 19½ in. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession 2017.268 (not on view)
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Second example: Length of wool Calimanco, ca. 1750, British, Norwich. Wool, woven. Overall 97¾ × 19 in. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession 2017.269 (not on view)
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Repeat: [PENDING MEASUREMENT]
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References: Florence M. Montgomery, Textiles in America 1650–1870 (Norton, 1984), pp. 185–187
The Cloth
Decor Chenille
A short, dense pile with a velvet-like surface on a firm woven ground. Fine striations catch the light as it moves across the room, deepening the colour. Substantial weight keeps a clean line on upholstery and gives tailored drapery a decisive fall.
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Composition: 100% polyester
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Width: 56 in printable (57 in full)
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Weight: 400 gsm
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For: Upholstery, cushions, headboards, heavy drapery
Cotton Linen
A fine, even linen-cotton weave. Colour prints cleanly while the woven surface remains visible, keeping solid grounds from going flat without softening fine linework. Light in the hand, it falls in narrow, supple folds and filters light rather than blocking it.
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Composition: 55% linen, 45% cotton
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Width: 54 in printable
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Weight: 250 gsm
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For: Upholstery, curtains, table linens, pillows
