The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-11-04
COSTLY HOUSEHOLD LINENS.
lou MAY PAY 81, 500 FOR 4 LACE
AND LINEN TABLE COVER.
Pillow Cases al ~ and More 4 Pair Sheets
at 2 and 8 Towels Cost $3.50
ApIece-S Things Not Only bought
but Also Used by New York Women.

but Also lsed by New York Women.
The price of a linen and lace table cover,
round in shape and about three and one-half
yards in diameter, shown at the autumn
opening OF a department store, was SO, 500.
The cloth had a glass case to itself and
queened il in the household linen section.
Women ignorant OF lace value and
women who can tell at a glance the kind
and probable cost OF any lace shown to
them alike worshipped before il, COM
menting rapturously on the many different
varieties of lace represented, conspicuous
among which were squares and oblongs Of
Italian filet inserted between rows Of cluny.
duchess, point de Venise and picked point,
the last being used in the border in the form
of groups Of small figures illustrating his
torical and NEUROLOGICAL subjects.
A tea cloth, perhaps a little more than one
yard i'm diameter, the price $500, which
draped n small table not farfrom the case
was also embelished with many squares Of
palian hlet lace, which, a saleswoman ex-
planned, is having a vogue al present with
New York women-with those, at least. who
can afford to pay large prices and indulge
to almost any extent the habit Of collecting
decorative linens. which of late has attacked
the wealthy.
Almost without exception il is pointedout,
the newer and handsomer New York houses
include a linen closet n a dark affair, but
closet arranged with glass doors which give
a view of the treasures spread upon the
shelves. As a result, no sort OF bed or table
linen " too costly to import.
Examples like those quoted. and many
others which include more lace than linen.
are becoming more and more plentiful,
indicating every year an incres sed tendency
toward elaboration in draping beds and
tables. At one of the most noted linen
stores Of New York, which has been in bust
ness for ffty-two years. and which is now
selling linens TO the granddaughter Of its
earliest customers, "a membe of the firm
admitted the other day that he was import
Ing liner linens now than ever before and
selling goods to-day which even ten years
age he never dreamed of putting in stock,
goods which at that time were only imported
to fill special orders.
The New York woman, said he, Els
buying finer linens, and buying them in
larger quantities, than ever before, for the
reason that the wealthy to-day use the
more costly specimens all the time, and not,
like the wealthy old fashioned ~housekeeper,
only on state occasions. Even people in
moderate circumstances max use of much
finer household linen than formerly.
Take, for instance, the practice OF en-
broidering a monogram, initials or a crest
on sheets, pillowcases, tablecloths and
napkins. It's now universal. Often a
dozen napkins retailing for 50 will cost SEA
additional for an embroidered monogram,
whereas in the old days they would prob
ably have gone unlettered or else had q
kmall, n Inexpensive marking in ink.
THE custom of marking linen with in
delible ink, practised not many years q
by fashionable New Workers., has COM
pletely passed. Down to glass n pantry
towels, household linen must now have an
embroidered monogram.
~Tabtecloths at present are marked
with two monographs, one at either end Of
the cloth. or diagonally at opposite corners
Sheets and pillow cases have a large en-
broidered monogram placed back of the
hemstitching, drawn work, embroidery or
lace insertion, which deoorates the edge"
From examples shown at this store IL
was learned that preference is given just
now to monograms Of English openwork
embroidery and Of French seeding, as the
design is called, although the raised English
embroidery and French and Italian en-
broidery of differing degrees OF heaviness
and intricacy OF pattern are almost as
popular.
There are customers, il is said, who never
change the style of their monogram, al
though they may nave changed the size
Of it, the up to date examples being larger
than formerly. The style of embroidery
does not matter at all, but it is OF conse-
quence hat the monogram should be any
where from three to eight inches in dame
ter.
At this linen house a roomful of women
are kept busy doing nothing but embroid-
ering and initials-at prices
about four times as high as those charged
for the same work in France, Italy or Ger
many, the proprietor admitted, adding
that in spite Of this facts Comparatively
few of the New York women who make
O practice of visiting Europe every few
months buy much bed and table linen on
the other side for two reasons-first, that
the duty on such goods is 60 per cent (;
secondly, that in ordering at home. if the
quality of the linen or the marking or the
price doesn't happen to suit a customer
she can more easily get back at the mer-
chant.
FOR durability and weight Irish linen is
highly recommended by the importers, the
Continental linens as a rule being lighter
IN weight. OF the embroidered and lace
trimmed varieties OF sheets and pillow
cases the more elaborate and beautiful
are mostly products of France.
The fall mportatiOns Of sheets OF the
fancy designs are trimmed bach of the
wide hem with from one to fifteen inches
of openwork or raised hand embroidery,
or with a one and a two inch insertion Of
drawn work, the buyers monogram in
every case being added TO suit individual
preference.
Pillow cases, both OF the French model,
which means they are square. opening at
the back and of the usual oblonR shape.
come TO match the sheets, some exquisitely
fine varieties bringing as much as $50 and
more a pair, the sheets OF heavier weave.
decorated with similar embroidery, costing
shout double that sum a pair. One OF the
favorite French pillow cases is decorated
atyout four inches back from the edge with
q half inch insertion of spoke or ladder
hemstitching and has a hand embroidered
scalloped edge. II sells at the rate of So so
O pair. Sheets. similarly decorated with
hemstitching, and with no scallops of course,
cost % a pair for the ~ by % inch size.
A pillow case of oblonR shape and % by
% inches, the hem finished with a row OF