UNLOCKING THE DETAILS OF A 19TH CENTURY COVERLET – Around The Frame

I confess, I didn’t know much about coverlets except that they are woven on looms so when I was asked to take a couple on consignment, I knew I had my work cut out for me.

After reading basic information online, I decide to contact Walter Font, Curator of the History Center to ask his assistance in discovering more about my specific two. When it was initially unfolded a note fell out stating “Blue & White Coverlet with fringe. Mary Malley Becker’s Grandmother JC Toorhies Waldrick.” Unfortunately the note wasn’t dated nor any info given on grandmother’s birth and death dates. The handwriting was the same as the red, green peony quilt featured in the December 5 column and even though not the same maker both were most likely related to the label maker because both labels mention the name “Waldrick”.

Laid out on a table the first thing Walter tells me is the two are pieces of a whole. The looms of the day were not very wide so two pieces were woven and sewn together to make it fit the bed. This explains why each has fringe on one long side but not the other: the two fringe-less sides would be joined together. Examining those sides we could not discern whether they had been joined at one time and taken apart or never joined in the first place.

Next we discover the two pieces are double-faced woven (a.k.a. double weave/double cloth) cloth. This means the back is the polar opposite of the front. Where you see a dark blue design on the front the exact same design is white on the back created by taking two or more sets of warp threads and one or more sets of weft (filling yarns) and interconnecting them to fashion a two-layered cloth. By moving the threads between the layers you can create intricate patterns.

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“In early 19th century America, double cloth wool and cotton woven coverlets were made by professional weavers from wool that was spun (and often dyed) at home and then delivered to a local weaver who made up the coverlet.” (Weissman, Judith Reiter and Wendy Lavitt: Labors of Love: America’s Textiles and Needlwork, 1650-1930, New York, Wings Books, 1987, p. 80-97) Without doing a burn test to be certain, Walter and I judge the yarns to be lindsey-woolsey: Linen on the warp, wool on the weft. To put this into potholder making terms the strong linen yarn is laid down first nice and straight. The wool yarn is then shuttled back and forth creating the coverlet and its designs.

The History Center has two books that provided much assistance in determining the patterns: America’s Quilts and Coverlets by Safford and Bishop and Indiana Coverlet Weavers and Their Coverlets by Pauline Montgomery. Both books offer a glimpse into the history of the making of various types of coverlets, their designs and the weavers who made them. Many of the coverlets have pine tree borders like the one we are examining. Found in several variations the coverlet main design is snowball and we find a full photo of one just like it on page 239 of the Safford/Bishop book the caption identifies it as Coverlet, Snowball with Pine Tree Border, c 1830 91.5″ x 76″. The quilt maker was born in 1822 so perhaps her mother made it. Coverlets went out of fashion after the Civil War so a date between 1830-1865 would be good estimate to its age. So now with many of their details revealed, the coverlets can now be even more appreciated as examples of 19th century textiles.

If you are interested in learning more go to the National Museum of the American Coverlet: www.coverletmuseum.org
Thanks to Walter Font, Curator of the History Center, Fort Wayne for his invaluable assistance!

Lois Levihn is the owner of Born Again Quilts a restoration studio and quilt gallery located at 4005 South Wayne Ave. She can be contacted at 260-515-9446 or bornagainquilts@frontier.com