Images(3)

Loom Woven White Quilt

Date1790-1840

OriginEngland, Manchester (probably); used in America, New York

MediumCotton; linen; silk (fiber identification by microscope)

DimensionsOverall including fringe: 94" wide by 99 1/2" high Measurement without fringe: 90 1/4" by 95 1/2"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1964-377

DescriptionThis is an almost square white cotton-and-linen bed cover woven on a loom in imitation of hand quilting, sometimes called "Marseilles." The design shows a large central lobed and stepped medallion enclosing flowers and leaves. Undulating leafy vines form an inner border with quarter-rounds at each of the four inner corners. The two wide outer borders feature scrolling flowers and leaves. The main background pattern is one of shells and scallops. A woven and twisted white cord fringe borders all four sides of coverlet; the fringe is cotton and linen. Worn cross stitch silk initials on the back may be EK or EVR.
Label TextTextiles such as this were made on a loom, comprised of a face and backing fabric woven simultaneously with a thin layer of padding between. They were often called "Marseilles" quilting, a name that derived from the hand-quilted objects made in eighteenth and nineteenth-century France.
InscribedCross-stitch initials on reverse are mostly indecipherable, but may be EK or EVR.
MarkingsSee inscriptions.
ProvenanceUsed by the Glen and Sanders families of Scotia, New York.