Tabby

Description

1) An old British classification for a plain weave fabric (Tortora and Merkel 1996). Tabby is often woven with two warp and two weft threads to form a coarser fabric.

2) A concrete made from ground oyster shells, lime obtained from burnt shells, and sand. Tabby was used by Spanish settlers in 16th century in Florida (Bucher 1996). It was in use until the mid-19th century in many coastal areas of the southeastern U.S.

Synonyms and Related Terms

1) tabby weave; plain weave; armure toile (Fr.)

2) tapia

Additional Information

° P.Tortora, R.Merkel (eds.), Fairchild's Dictionary of Textiles, Fairchild Publications, New York, 1996. ° W. Bucher, Dictionary of Building Preservation, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1996.

Sources Checked for Data in Record

• Rosalie Rosso King, Textile Identification, Conservation, and Preservation, Noyes Publications, Park Ridge, NJ, 1985

• Dictionary of Building Preservation, Ward Bucher, ed., John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York City, 1996

• Fairchild's Dictionary of Textiles, Phyllis G.Tortora, Robert S. Merkel (eds.), Fairchild Publications, New York City, 7th edition, 1996

• Art and Architecture Thesaurus Online, http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabulary/aat/, J. Paul Getty Trust, Los Angeles, 2000

• Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, at http://www.wikipedia.com Comment: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabby_%28cement%29 (Accessed Nov. 9, 2005)