C. 1800's Blue and Beige Ticking
Late 1800's blue and beige mattress ticking. Linen cotton mix with a gentle herringbone weave. The striping includes shades of a soft light beige, a light latte brown, aged white and soft indigo blue.
1920's heavy weight mattress ticking. Once a mattress, stuffed with feathers. The ground tone is a soft deep strawberry red and the striping colors include shades of khaki green, soft gold, pink and black. Hand woven cotton and linen mix.
The word 'ticking' is derived from the Latin word for case, 'Tica.' The fabric came to be known as 'denim,' as Nimes, France was one of the great producers of this ticking fabric. Ticking fabric was used for creating mattresses, as the European bedding system of old consisted of many layers of textiles - the ones at the bottom were stuffed with straw and fodder and topped with a dense denim (ticking) that was stuffed with feathers for the top layers.