Where does Burlap come from?

Burlap comes from India, Bengal, first documented in the 1800s.

Plate No. 101fabric

The coarse open weave of the sack.

First documented: 1800s
Origin: Bengal, India
Fiber: jute, hemp
Weave: coarse plain weave
Family: plain

Plate No. 101 · fabric

Burlap

Burlap, called hessian outside North America, is the coarsest working cloth in the catalogue: a rough, loose plain weave of jute fiber, cheap, breathable, and strong enough to hold what is poured into it. It is the cloth of the sack, of coffee and grain and potatoes, of sandbags and gunny sacks, of the painter's coarsest canvas and the gardener's root wrap. Jute milled in Bengal and Dundee made and moved the commodities of empire, and the smell of burlap is still the smell of a feed store.

Illustration: a dockside warehouse, stacked jute sacks of coffee and grain, a porter at a distance with a sack on his shoulder, shafts of dusty light — A dockside warehouse, stacked jute sacks of coffee and grain, a porter at a distance with a sack on his shoulder, shafts of dusty light.

Named for

The American name; called hessian in Britain after the Hessian soldiers whose coarse cloth it resembled.

Also known as

hessian, gunny

Common questions

What is Burlap made of?: Burlap, called hessian outside North America, is the coarsest working cloth in the catalogue: a rough, loose plain weave of jute fiber, cheap, breathable, and strong enough to hold what is poured into it.
Where does Burlap come from?: Burlap comes from India, Bengal, first documented in the 1800s.
What is Burlap named after?: The American name; called hessian in Britain after the Hessian soldiers whose coarse cloth it resembled.