Antimacassar

Antimakassars (from Greek ἀντί = " against" and Makassar, meaning hair oils from Makassar ) are fabric covers for furniture backs, which should protect the actual terms of the pads prior to contact with the hair of the user or the fat that contains this, .

They were mainly between about 1850 and used the beginning of the 20th century - in 1865 they were also standard on theater seats - but are still in embryonic form as early as coatings on some plane or bus seats and can be found in the railway traffic. In transport Antimakassars are now provided almost exclusively with logo ( embroidery, prints ) of the transportation company. Normally, the covers are replaced after every trip.

The original Antimakassars for private use were mostly made at home, but they could also buy them. The materials and manufacturing techniques varied greatly; known today are probably mainly still the white copies with lace top.

The name goes back to the Makassaröl which was obtained in the vicinity of the Indonesian city of Makassar from the fruits of Koesambibäume ( Schleichera trijuga ) and was used as the basis for much of the 19th century used hair oil.

Literary mention is the Antimakassars about in Theodor Fontane's novel Mathilde Möhring; here moved their absence the student Hugo Grossmann, quartering themselves as a lodger in family Möhring. The Antimakassars be mentioned here along with oil paintings and apparently represent an attribute of middle-class home has acted against the great man a deep dislike. Hubert von Herkomer counts in his autobiography that " ubiquitous" Antimakassar to the tasteless furnishings of Victorian households. Even Erich Maria Remarque's novel in three comrades, the textile furniture covers are still a complete trousseau in bourgeois circles. Here, however, no longer the foreign word Antimakassar used, but only spoken by lace.

• Hygiene
• Seating
• Raumtextilie