VELVET, a rich kind of stuff, all silk, covered on the outside with a close, short, fine, soft shag, the other side being a very strong close tissue.
The nap or shag, called also the velveting, of this stuff, is formed of part of the threads of the warp, which the workman puts on a long narrow-channelled ruler or needle, which he afterwards cuts, by drawing a sharp steel tool along the channel of the needle to the ends of the warp. The principal and best manufactories of velvet are in France and Italy; particularly in Venice, Milan, Florence, Genoa, and Lucca: there are others in Holland, set up by the French refugees; whereof that at Haarlem is the most considerable: but they all come short of the beauty of those in France, and accordingly are sold for 10 or 15 per cent. less. There are even some brought from China; but they are the worst of all.