1. The upholsterer makes beds, sacking-bottoms, mattresses, cushions,
curtains for windows and beds, and cuts out, sews together, and
fastens down, carpets. One branch of his business, also, consists in
covering or lining and stuffing sofas, and particular kinds of chairs,
the frames of which are made by cabinet-makers and fancy chair-makers.
2. Beds are stuffed with the feathers of geese and ducks. The sack
which contains them, when in use, is called a _tick_, and the striped
stuff of which it is composed, is called _ticking_. The feathers used
by the upholsterer, are purchased from the feather-merchants, who in
turn procure them from country merchants and pedlers. The dealer in
feathers also employs travelling agents to collect them in different
parts of the country.
3. Beds and pillows are also made of down obtained from the nests of
the eider-duck, which is found in the northern parts of Europe and
America, above latitude 45°. Eider-down is worth about two dollars
per pound, and five or six times that quantity is sufficient for a bed
of common size.
4. Mattresses are made of curled hair, moss, shavings of ratan, flock,
straw, corn-husks, and cat-tail flag. The hair most employed for this
purpose grows upon the tails of cattle, and upon the manes and tails
of horses. It is purchased, in its natural state, from tanners, by
persons who make it a business to prepare it for use. The last process
of the preparation consists in twisting it into a kind of rope. These
ropes are picked to pieces by the upholsterer, and the hair, in its
curled and elastic state, is applied to stuffing mattresses, cushions,
chairs, and sofas.
5. Moss is obtained from the Southern states of our Union, where it is
found in great abundance, and of a good quality. Flock is made by
reducing to a degree of fineness, by machinery, coarse tags of wool,
pieces of woollen cloth, old stockings, and other woollen offals of
little or no value in any other application. Of all the materials for
stuffing upholstery, hair is much the best, and, although it costs
more in its original purchase, it is much cheaper in the end.
6. In making and putting up window and bed curtains, considerable
taste is required to insure success. A knowledge of drawing is
particularly useful here, in improving the taste, as well as in
exhibiting to customers the prevailing fashions, or any changes which
may be proposed. The trimmings consist chiefly of tassels, fringes,
and gilded or brass fixtures.
7. We have not space for a particular description of the manner in
which any of the operations of the upholsterer are performed; nor is
this necessary, since the work itself, in almost every specimen of it,
affords obvious indications of the manner of its execution. We will
merely remark, that a great proportion of it is performed by females.
8. In the first ages of the world, it was the universal practice to
sleep upon the skins of beasts, and this is still the custom among the
savage nations of the present day. The Greeks and the Romans, in the
early part of their history, slept in this manner, and so did the
common people of some parts of Germany, even until modern times.
9. The first advancement from the use of skins was the substitution of
rushes, heath, or straw, which was primarily strewed loosely on the
ground or floor, and finally confined with ticking; and these and
similar materials are still used by the poor in various parts of the
world. So late as the close of the thirteenth century, the royal
family of England slept on beds made of straw.
10. During the civilized periods of antiquity, the wealthy commonly
filled their beds with feathers. After the Romans had become
luxurious, they used several kinds of beds, among which were the
_lectus cubicularis_, or chamber bed, whereon they slept; the _lectus
discubitorius_, or table bed, whereon they ate; and the _lectus
lucubratorius_, on which they studied.
11. The Romans adopted the Eastern fashion of reclining at their
meals, at the close of the second Punic war, about 200 years before
Christ, when Scipio Africanus brought some little beds from Carthage,
which were thence called _Punicani_. These beds were low, made of
wood, covered with leather, and stuffed with hay or straw. Before this
time, they sat down to eat on plain wooden benches, in imitation of
the heroes of Homer, or after the manner of the Cretans and
Lacedæmonians.
12. From the greatest simplicity, the Romans at length carried their
supping beds to the most surprising magnificence. The bedsteads were
sometimes made of gold or silver, and very commonly of wood, adorned
with plates of these metals or with tortoise shell. On the couch was
laid a mattress or quilt, stuffed with feathers or wool.
13. Three persons commonly occupied one couch. They lay with the upper
part of the body reclined on the left arm, the head a little raised,
the back supported by cushions, and the limbs stretched out at full
length or a little bent. The feet of the first were placed behind the
back of the second, and his feet behind the back of the third.
Reclining at meals was customary in Asia, in the time of our Savior,
as is clearly shown in John, xiii., 23 and 25, and this rendered it
convenient for Mary to anoint the feet of Jesus, while at the table.
14. The Romans, during the republic, made their tables of a square
form, and on three sides of it was placed a couch; but, under the
emperors, a long couch of a semicircular form having been introduced,
the table was made of a similar shape to conform to it. In either
case, one side was left empty, to admit of the approach of the
servants.
15. We have no certain evidence that carpets were known in the
civilized periods of antiquity. They appear to have originated in
Persia, at a time comparatively modern, and to have spread in a
gradual manner towards the West. They were unknown in England in the
reign of Elizabeth; for it was then the fashion to strew the floor
with hay and rushes. Even the presence-chamber of this princess was
covered in this manner. The manufacture of carpets was not commenced
in England, until the year 1750. They are now extensively manufactured
in the United States.
[Illustration: CHAIR MAKER.]