The role of decorative textiles within the country house as elite signifers has attracted considerable attention, yet that of the household textiles that performed practical functions linked to sociability, comfort and hygiene has been underrepresented. Household textiles, the sheets, pillow cases, table linen and towels that were part of the everyday experience of everyone except the indigent, are by their very nature, transitory. Until the middle of the nineteenth century they were made of linen. This could be from flax or hemp; home produced or imported. Only linen could withstand the rigours of the washing methods in use until relatively recently and since a wide variety of qualities of it were available, it was the fabric of choice for all not least the gentry. This article identifies the range of such textiles available to the country house consumer and their ways of acquiring them together with the values and meanings placed upon them by contemporaries. Analysing data from sales catalogues and combined with probate and household inventories reveals a wealth of hitherto underused information pertaining to some 80 gentry households allowing the article to explore the mechanics of how household textiles were used, maintained and stored in order to consider how they were perceived and valued by their owners thus contributing towards bridging the divide between studies of consumption and investigations of country house life.

中文翻译：

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家用纺织品 1660-1850：乡间别墅中隐藏的物质文化物品

装饰纺织品在乡间别墅中作为精英标志的作用引起了相当多的关注，但具有与社交、舒适和卫生相关的实用功能的家用纺织品却没有得到充分体现。家用纺织品、床单、枕套、桌布和毛巾是每个人日常体验的一部分，除了穷人，它们的本质是短暂的。直到十九世纪中叶，它们都是用亚麻布制成的。这可能来自亚麻或大麻；国产或进口。直到最近，只有亚麻布才能经受住所使用的洗涤方法的严苛考验，而且由于它有多种品质可供选择，因此它是所有人（尤其是绅士）的首选面料。本文确定了乡间别墅消费者可获得的此类纺织品的范围及其获取方式，以及同时代人赋予它们的价值和意义。分析销售目录中的数据并结合遗嘱认证和家庭库存，揭示了与大约 80 个士绅家庭有关的大量迄今为止未被充分利用的信息，使本文能够探索家用纺织品的使用、维护和储存机制，以考虑如何看待它们并受到业主的重视，从而有助于弥合消费研究和乡间别墅生活调查之间的鸿沟。