English Turkey-work Upholstered Furniture 1620-1680
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Glasgow Museums has a small collection of Turkey-work upholstered furniture, including couches and stools, dating from 1640-1680. Turkey-work is a type of material made with a knotted pile, woven on a loom by knotting colourful wool yarns between wefts by hand. Originally based on carpets from the Ottoman Empire imported during the 1500s and 1600s for British domestic interiors, the technique was copied by manufacturers based in England. First used to make carpets and table carpets, Turkey-work was increasingly used to make cushions, seat covers for upholstered stools and chairs; it was relatively affordable compared to other textiles and formed a soft yet durable cover. By 1625, English manufacturers moved away from recreating the original Turkish designs, and instead, produced patterns influenced by popular motifs of flowers and foliage used in contemporary European embroideries and tapestries. Surviving seventeenth-century Turkey-work patterns are often identified by the geometrical, angled form of the motif, brought about from the knotting process. Although some Turkey-work pieces were created by predominantly female makers for their individual households and passed on to the furniture maker, it was more common for Turkey-work to be manufactured externally to standard sizes and then the furniture formed to fit the finished work. The Turkey-work furniture objects were owned by Sir William Burrell (1861-1958), and his wife Constance, Lady Burrell, and used in their home, Hutton Castle, outside Berwick-Upon-Tweed, in the Scottish Borders. Burrell originally purchased the Turkey-work covers separately, and commissioned dealer Robert Lauder in the 1930s to upholster them to seventeenth century furniture frames. Additional Turkey-work panels purchased by Burrell can be found in the Burrell needlework collection (no. 29.)
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