Jackie called me yesterday asking about tablecloths. She had a couple plaids she was considering for a large table at the Mumford event. My response was to play it safe and stick to white linen. Of course, since she asked, I had to go find out.
Step one, look through the interior paintings I have saved. In the first painting I opened, my play it safe response went out the window. In Francis William Edmonds’ Barking Up the Wrong Tree (c. 1850-55) a red cloth covers a small table. This cloth has either a yellow or golden double stripe border. This is a modest working class or lower middle class home.
Looking at the more affluent homes, first is Lady in an Elegant Interior by David de Noter (c. 1852). This round table in what appears to be a parlor is draped in a red patterned cloth which has colors that remind me of paisley shawls (though I doubt this is a shawl.) The cloth is rather tossed or roughly draped. A small table in Christmas Time by Eastman Johnson (c1864) has another red patterned tablecloth. This one is neatly draping the table. A dark green cloth with a decorative border drapes a parlor table in Lilly Martin Spencer’s Patty Cake. Another lovely green cloth is draped over a round parlor table in Reverend Atwood and His Family (page 5). This cloth has what appears to be a woven in border type design. This is a similar cloth as well.
Kitchen tables, used for work, are shown without clothes. Examples would be The Speculator by Francis William Edmonds (c 1852), The Young Wife: First Stew by Lilly Martin Spencer (c1854), Kitchen Interior by Thomas Hicks (c1865),
One table I am not sure about is in the painting The Song of the Shirt by John Thomas Peele (c1847). The woman is working on her sewing. I don’t know if the yellow fabric with holes draped across the table is a table cloth or simply a piece of cloth.
What about that safe white linen tablecloth? One like what I pictured can be seen in Family Life on the Frontier by George Caleb Bingham (c1845) where it drapes a large table. Another drapes a table in home with more means in The Contest for the Bouquet by Seymour Joseph Guy (c1866). Most still lifes I have saved also show a white cloth (or now cloth). Each of these show tables set with food. A few examples: several by John F. Francis, Fruit Still Life with Champagne Bottle by Severin Roesen (c1848),
A surprise to me is the long cloth-less table in the 1821 painting The Dinner Party by Henry Sargent. That cloth free table goes against everything I’ve read about setting a table.
Now, I haven’t noted which table clothes are found in American homes vs European homes because without looking up the art pieces, I can just speculate. There could be some variation between the two.
In the International Exhibition catalogs a variety of tablecloths are listed. Most are listed under flax (linen); some under wool & woolens and silks as tablecloths, table-cloths and table linens. These tablecloths or table-covers would need to be divided into those put on a table for eating (what I think Jackie wants) or over a parlor table. I suspect a tablecloth is the one that goes on the dining table for the meal while the table-cover goes on the parlor tables or the dining table while there is no meal. This is based on this passage: “….and the table-cover thrown over, and the room restored to its usual order.” (The Book of Household Management) Also keep in mind these are the ‘cream of the crop’ type of examples meant to display the art of each manufacture. Here are some of those listed:
“Damask table-cloth” “Damask table-cover” “Double Damask tablecloth” “Tablecloth of damask with heraldic designs” “Table cloth, embroidered with thread on crimson sarsenet.” “Mohair table-covers” “Table-covers:- cotton and worsted, and silk and worsted” “Crimson and green embossed table covers” “Victoria table-cloth, made from cotton and worsted, dyed previous to weaving, fast colours.” “Silk and worsted and cotton and worsted Victoria velvet table-cover.” “The manufactures express their opinion that the Victoria velvet damask and table-cover, are in a style that has not been previously made in this country [England]. “Pictoral mosaic cloth-work table-cover or quilt, comprising 32 compartments exclusive of the centre, which is the arms of England; which being an imitation of some well-known picture, made of coloured clothes, fine-draw together so as to imitate paintings, the features being worked with the needle, the whole surrounded with a border. This work has been the labour of leisure hours for a period of nine years and a half.” “Double damask table-cloth, with border, roses, shamrocks, and thistles, Irish wolf-dog and harp; cornerpiece, shield of oak leaves, flags, anchors, and a dove encircled in palm wreathes with olive branchl side range, tray-scroll, Price of Wale’s feathers, in oak wreath; and centre range, a temple, British royal arms, vase of flowers, &c.” “Table cloth of new pattern, to be presented to the Earl of Clarendon by the Royal Society for the promotion and improvement of the growth of flax in Ireland. The centre represents the star of the Order of the Garter, in a union garland of rose, shamrock and thistle, interspersed with flax, and surrounded by the jewels of the Order of the Bath and St. Patrick, with Irish harps in shamrock wreaths. At each end is a presentation piece from the Royal Flax Society, Belfast, 18.”>1, on a group of shamrock and flax, surrounded by the Clarendon arms, incorporating the collar and jewel of the Order of St. Patrick, with the motto and jewel of the Order of the Garter. The border exhibits a rich collection of flowers, drawn from nature. The ground consiste of four large amaryllids around each representation of the arms, with email sprigs of shamrock and flag intertwined, &c.” “Table cloth of new pattern, designed by John Mackenzie, Government School of Design. The centre consista of a rustic stump and basket of rich flowers, resting on a group of flowers at the base, and supported by an Arum and a Strelitzia, surrounded by a light wreath of flowers, chiefly climbers, and a ground harmonizing in same style. The border represents a rich scroll, each compartment terminating with distinct flowers. The corners represent tin1 rhododendron in flower, the end and side the centres of flowers. The margin represents the hearts-ease, on leaves of the same.” “Table-cloth, extra double damask, with arms of Goldsmiths’ Company of London for centre, flowers with sprigs filling, in a scroll and flower border.” “Table-cloth, extra double damask, with arms of Baron Bothacliild for centre, surrounded by various sprigs, and border of flowers”. “Table-cloth, extra double damask, with anus of Mr. Wheble for centre, surrounded with »prigs, mid encircled by two flowing scroll borders.” “Table-cloth, extra double damask, being pattern of a rich table service of various lengths, manufactured for Her Majesty’s 62nd Regiment of Foot, showing the number in a large star, surrounded by a flowing riband containing the names of the buttles in which this regiment obtained honours, with sprigs, the whole enclosed by a bonier of oak and laurel intertwined.”I am rather disappointed by what I am finding in the household advice and guide books. The authors like to write about laying a cloth on a table but they fail to tell us which cloth. In Beeton’s The Book of Household Management, she mentions a “neat white cloth covered the table” in a story she tells.
Next steps could be to look at sales accounts, paying attention to the size of the tablecloth or table-cover compared to the size of tables (dining vs parlor). (Not sure if I’ll get to that.)
If I Had My Own Blue Box: 
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