{"id":531,"date":"2012-07-13T20:10:00","date_gmt":"2012-07-13T20:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/2012\/07\/13\/antimacassars-from-indonesia-to-your-grandmas-parlor-2\/"},"modified":"2012-07-13T20:10:00","modified_gmt":"2012-07-13T20:10:00","slug":"antimacassars-from-indonesia-to-your-grandmas-parlor-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/2012\/07\/antimacassars-from-indonesia-to-your-grandmas-parlor-2.html","title":{"rendered":"Antimacassars – From Indonesia to Your Grandma’s Parlor"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n<\/p>\n
\nWhat a funny word, antimacassar. The dictionary separates it
\ninto anti + Macassar. Macassar is an oil formerly used as a hair dressing.
\nAntimacassar is a small cover on the back of a chair, sofa, etc. to prevent
\nsoiling. So, in effect, this textile is against spots made by hair oil. One
\nwould have thought a better name could have been created in the name of
\nmarketing, but apparently homemakers knew exactly what it meant and what was
\nthe function of the textile.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nSo, to begin. 
\nMacassar oil was used by men in the last half of the 19thC as a hair
\n\u201csmoother\u201d. Oils from exotic plants were extremely popular during the Victorian
\nand Edwardian era and were used for cosmetics and home remedies of every
\ndescription. The district of Macassar (also spelled Makassar) is found on the
\nsouthwest coast of the Indonesian island of  Sulawesi. The hair oil was made from the fruit of the bado nut tree and was
\nexported in vast quantities.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nTo protect their parlor furniture, women fashioned
\ndecorative \u201cdoileys\u201d, usually using heavy cotton thread to crochet covers for
\nthe back of the head rest and often made matching covers for the chair or sofa
\narms.  These continued to be made long
\nafter that particular hair pomade lost its allure, but was replaced by other
\nhair products.  Remember those Brylcreme
\ncommercials?  <\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nPatterns for antimacassars could be found in women\u2019s
\nneedlework magazines, or obtained through mail order well into the 20th<\/sup>
\nC.  One of the most popular patterns was
\nthe pineapple, perhaps because the basic shape of the crocheted fruit lent
\nitself to the contours of the furniture.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThese sets can still be found in thrift stores, vintage
\ntextile shops, and, of course, through the internet.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What a funny word, antimacassar. The dictionary separates it into anti + Macassar. Macassar is an oil formerly used as a hair dressing. Antimacassar is a small cover on the back of a chair, sofa, etc. to prevent soiling. So, in effect, this textile is against spots made by hair oil. One would have thought…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}