Circa 1900 French mattress ticking fabric. Gray floral woven damask cotton ticking in the style of Napoleon III. Heavy weight rare battleship gray base color.
 
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.