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Canton matting.(Design notes)(Canton Reproductions)
Straw matting was used on household floors in colonial America. During an extended visit to the colonies in the early 1750s, Israel Acrelius, pastor to the New Sweden congregation on the Delaware River, wrote that "straw carpets have lately been introduced in the towns." In May 1759 George Washington ordered "50 yards of best Floor matting" for Mount Vernon from his London agent, Robert Cary, and thirty years later he was still using straw matting on the floors at Mount Vernon. In a letter of January 15, 1789, addressed to Robert Morris, Washington thanked him for his help in procuring "Floor matting from China." As Washington's orders reveal, China was a source of supply for this floor covering. Further evidence of straw carpets and matting originating in China is found in advertisements for "Canton mats for floors" in the Federal Gazette and Baltimore Daily Advertiser of June 6 and September 7, 1803. Domestic manuals by Eliza Leslie and Catherine Beecher with her sister Harriet Beecher Stowe confirm that mats continued to be available in the United States until 1879, but their use gradually waned, and a hundred years later they were hard to locate. In Recreating the Historic House Interior, published in 1979, the preservation historian William Seale noted that "straw matting of the 'Canton' sort is nearly impossible to find."
John Henry Seale, William Seale's son, has recently eased the task of locating straw matting for historic houses, decorators, and individuals. About five years ago, he established Canton Reproductions in Dallas, which imports rolls of colonial style matting from China. Seale made several trips to China with old samples so that authentic reproductions could be produced.
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