According to Wallace-Hadrill, this was a shop or workshop area with stairs to upper floor. It had a passage leading to a small courtyard and five rooms. The largest room had black ground decoration and polychrome marble floor. There were traces of decoration in the rooms of the upper floor.
See Wallace-Hadrill, A., 1994. Houses and Society in Pompeii and Herculaneum. New Jersey: Princeton U.P. (p.201).
Maiuri wrote, this was a dwelling and workshop of artisans, possibly either cloth-makers or cloth-merchants. In the simple room at the entrance which was used as a shop, there was a stove, a dozen amphorae and a large mortar. Adjoining this was a large room with remains of paintings in the IV style. To the rear was a small room where pieces of material were shown (?1936 edition of book?), their design still recognisable. A short corridor led to several rooms and a latrine illuminated by a light-well. The arrangement of the stairs is unusual in this house: there is a large staircase with a street entrance that leads to the upper floor and beneath it a smaller one leads up from the shop to a mezzanine room.
According to Pesando and Guidobaldi, the name of this house was derived from the finding of some widths of cloth in room 3.
Replicas of these had been on display in room 2, of the House of the Wooden Screen, but were not the original.
See Pesando, F. and Guidobaldi, M.P. (2006). Pompei, Oplontis, Ercolano, Stabiae. Editori Laterza, (p.338).
Herculaneum IV.19. Plan of Casa della Stoffa or House of the
Cloth.
Cardo V Inferiore, Herculaneum, May 2001. Looking south, on
the right is the doorway to IV.19. Photo
courtesy of Current Archaeology.
IV.20, on left, and IV.19, on right, Herculaneum. September 2015.
Looking west towards entrance doorways. Photo courtesy of Michael Binns.
IV.20, on left, and IV.19, on right, Herculaneum. March 2014. Looking west towards entrance doorways on Cardo V.
Foto Annette Haug, ERC Grant 681269 DÉCOR
IV.19 Herculaneum, October 2012. Entrance doorway, looking west. Photo courtesy of Michael Binns.
IV.20 and 19 Herculaneum. May 2010. (20 on left, steps to upper floor, 19 Casa della Stoffa), doorway on right.
IV.20, Herculaneum, October 2012. Steps from street to upper floor, photo taken from IV.19. Photo courtesy of Michael Binns.
IV.20, Herculaneum, June 2005. Steps from street to upper floor, photo taken from IV.19. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix.
IV.20, Herculaneum. May 2010. Steps from street to upper floor, photo taken from IV.19.
IV.19 Herculaneum. March 2014. Looking towards south-west corner.
Foto Annette Haug, ERC Grant 681269 DÉCOR
IV.19 Herculaneum. May 2010. Looking towards south-west corner.
IV.19, Herculaneum, May 2005. South-west corner. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix.
IV.19, Herculaneum, June 2005. Upper south-west corner. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix.
In the upper left is the line of the stairs from the stairs discovered at IV.20, to an upper floor.
On the right is the line of the wooden stairs that would have gone up from the stone base of stairs to the mezzanine level.
IV.19, Herculaneum, May 2005. Detail from upper south-west corner. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix.
IV.19, Herculaneum, May 2005. Detail from upper south-west corner. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix.
IV.20, Herculaneum. May 2018. Steps in south-west corner, leading to a mezzanine room. Photo courtesy of Buzz Ferebee.
IV.19 Herculaneum. August 2013. Stone steps in south-west corner, leading to a mezzanine room. Photo courtesy of Buzz Ferebee.
IV.19 Herculaneum. May 2010. Looking towards west wall and corridor to rear.
IV.19, Herculaneum, June 2005. Corridor to rear, south wall. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix.
IV.19 Herculaneum. August 2013.
Doorway to rear room 3 in west wall, on left, where widths of cloth were found, and corridor to rear. Photo courtesy of Buzz Ferebee.
IV.19 Herculaneum. 1972. Various fibres of cloths (not necessarily the ones found in this house).
Photo taken in Naples Archaeological Museum. Photo by Stanley A. Jashemski.
Source: The Wilhelmina and Stanley A. Jashemski archive in the University of Maryland Library, Special Collections (See collection page) and made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non- Commercial License v.4. See Licence and use details.
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IV.19, Herculaneum, June 2005. Looking towards west wall and doorway to room 3. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix.
IV.19 Herculaneum. August 2013. Upper west wall. Photo courtesy of Buzz Ferebee.
IV.19 Herculaneum, September 2017.
Looking towards south-west corner of room 2, across room 1 of IV.18, from outside its entrance doorway, on right. Photo courtesy of Klaus Heese.
IV.19 Herculaneum, May 2004. Room 2, looking towards south-west corner with remains of III style painting.
IV.19 Herculaneum, September 2019.
Room 2, looking towards south-west corner with remains of III style painting. On the right is room 1, of IV.18. Photo courtesy of Klaus Heese.
IV.19 Herculaneum, March 2014. Room 2, detail of painting from south-west corner.
Foto Annette Haug, ERC Grant 681269 DÉCOR
IV.19, Herculaneum, May 2006. Room 2, detail of painting from south-west corner. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix.
IV.19, Herculaneum, October 2001.
Looking towards the south-west corner of room 2. Photo courtesy of Peter Woods.
IV.19, Herculaneum, 7th August 1976. Room 2, looking towards south-west corner.
Photo courtesy of Rick Bauer, from Dr George Fay’s slides collection.
IV.19 Herculaneum. September 2015. Room 16 of IV.4, south wall of triclinium, looking south over wall towards rear of IV.19.
IV.19 Herculaneum. October 2014.
Looking south-east towards part of the rear rooms, from south wall of triclinium 16, in IV.4. Photo courtesy of Michael Binns.
IV.19 Herculaneum, October 2014.
Looking south towards to doorway of room 6, rooms at rear of IV.19, photo taken from room 16 the triclinium of IV.4.
On the right side of this photo can be seen the wall at the rear of the latrine in the House of the Stags, next to it is
the latrine for IV.19 which would be in the corner near the piece of wood and bits of stones.
Above the latrine is a large pipe from the upper floor that discharged water into the drain well which was communal to both houses.
Photo courtesy of Michael Binns.
IV.19 Herculaneum, October 2014.
Looking towards doorway of room 6 on right, at rear of IV.19, and doorway to room 5, centre left. Photo courtesy of Michael Binns.
IV.19, Herculaneum, June 2005. Looking towards east wall of corridor, outside doorway to room 5. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix.
IV.19, Herculaneum, June 2005. Room 5, north wall. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix.
IV.19, Herculaneum, June 2005. Room 5, west wall. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix.
IV.19, Herculaneum, June 2005. Room 5, south wall. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix.
IV.19, Herculaneum, May 2005. Room 5, south wall. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix.
IV.19, Herculaneum, May 2005. Room 5, detail from south wall. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix.
IV.19, Herculaneum, May 2005. Room 5, detail from south wall. Photo courtesy of Nicolas Monteix.