18th Century Slipcovers, Cases, and Covers for Upholstered Furniture

Last updated: Jan 18, 2024

Eighteenth century slipcovers were known as “slips” or “cases.” The items below show a variety of slips, cases, and covers for 18th century furniture, including ornamental show cases & covers and loose covers for everyday protection of upholstery.

Some of the checked fabrics in sample books, like those produced by Benjamin & John Bower of Manchester (Winterthur 07x005 and Met 156.4 T31), may have also been used to create these sorts of colonial slipcovers.

• National Trust 930838, a wing armchair with a loose green cover, 18th century
• V&A T.426-1988, “Seat cover About 1720 England Silk damask with appliqué decoration of white silk satin and blue silk embroidery … This cover would have been fastened on top of a plainer, fixed seat cover. Show, or 'case', covers were usually made of expensive textiles. They were used only on special occasions and at other times were carefully stored away. Alternatively, they were used to vary the decoration of a room in different seasons.”
• V&A T.302&A-1973, “Loose cover, for a high-backed winged armchair, of linen embroidered with silk. It comprises two pieces, one cover for the chair back, wings and arms, and one cover for the cushion,” c. 1725-1750; “Show covers, or 'false cases', like this, were made to be slipped on and off furniture. Often using particularly decorative or high value textiles, they might only be brought out during the short periods when a house was occupied by wealthy owners with several other residences, or if prestigious guests were to be received. This example, which shows the arms of a branch of the Holden family, was made for a wing chair, and may have been intended for a bedroom. The embroidery has been cut to fit the parts of the chair cover and was possibly a bed cover originally; it has been very well placed to show the pattern to best advantage.”
• Met 27.195.1, an Indian chintz chair seat cover, c. 1725-1750; “this panel was made to cover a European-style chair seat, although it was never used. The design’s overall shape indicates that it was created specifically for an English chair dating between about 1720 and 1740.”
• Mahogany chairs with embroidered loose linen covers, c. 1750-1753: National Trust 718832, 718833, 718834, 718835
• Met 2014.710.1, .2, a pair of painted silk chair covers, France, third quarter of the 18th century; This is a rare surviving example of 18th century painted silk upholstery panels that were designed to be removable, presumably for the seasonal change of show covers which was a French tradition.”
• Samuel Johnson by Sir Joshua Reynolds, c. 1756
• Colonial Williamsburg 1963-36,10, slipcover or case cover for an easy chair cushion made of white cotton-linen textile, copperplate-printed in red in 1761
• Colonial Williamsburg 1963-36,12, case cover for side chair made of red on white pastoral 1761 copperplate-printed cotton-and-linen
• Winterthur 1955.0015.005, a slipcover made of a 1761 copperplate printed cotton/linen fabric
• John Hamilton Mortimer with a student and John Hamilton Mortimer with Joseph Wilton and a student by John Hamilton Mortimer, c. 1760-65
• Modern Love: The Honey-Moon, 1765
• Self-portrait of John Hamilton Mortimer, c. 1765-1770
• A caricature group including members of the Howdalian Society by John Hamilton Mortimer, c. 1766
• George Thompson, his Wife and (?) his Sister-in-Law by John Hamilton Mortimer, c.1766-1768
• Ensign Rosebud repoſing himſelf after the Fatigues of the Parade, 1766
• George Harry Grey, later 6th Earl of Stamford, and Lady Henrietta Grey, later Lady Chetwode, as children, with their nurse by Hugh Douglas Hamilton, 1767
• A scene from 'Love in a Village' by John Zoffany, 1767
• The Refusal, 1768
• Conversation piece attributed to Benjamin Wilson
• Met X.535, an Indian painted cotton chair seat cover for European market, 18th century
• Chair-seat slipcovers and fragments in the Rijksmuseum, c. 1770-1780: BK-1992-17-A, BK-1992-17-B, BK-1992-17-C, BK-1992-17-E, BK-1992-17-F
• The Reverend Charles Everard Booth, Captain Griffith Booth, and an unidentified man, playing billiards by John Hamilton Mortimer, c. 1775-1779
• January, c. 1781
• The Benevolent Physician, 1782
• Winterthur 1969.3330.002, a slipcover made from copperplate-printed fabric from c. 1785
• Consideration, or the Second Stage of Elopement, 1786
• Caroline & Walstien, 1787
• Illustration from 'The Invisible Spy', 1788
• Winterthur 1959.0115.002, a printed slipcover for a chair, England, c. 1790-1795
• A Fool and his Money’s soon Parted, 1790
• On the Wings of Love, 1791
• The Prodigal Son Revelling with Harlots, 1792
• Which Way Shall I Turn Me, 1794
• The Inseparable Friends, or Weary After a Walk, 1797
• Madora, c. 1800