Images(4)

Woven White Coverlet

Date1837

OriginAmerica, North Carolina, Iredell County (possibly)

MediumCotton

DimensionsOH: 88 5/8" x OW: 77 5/8"

Credit LineGift of James Christopher Morrison and Mary Gray Hoffman

Object number2023.609.5

DescriptionThis is a rectangular white cotton coverlet woven in a weft-loop technique, so called boutonné. The coverlet has a 3/8” rolled hem at top and bottom and selvages at sides. It consists of two panels stitched together with a butted seam. The design consists of a center stepped medallion filled with four eight-pointed stars and eight stylized flower heads framed by borders: a large inner border of 26 stylized flower heads on angular stems; a narrow inner border of conjoined eight-petal flowers; a wider border of large eight-pointed stars alternating with bands of conjoined eight-petal flowers; and an outer border of diamonds. Woven at the top of the coverlet is the inscription: “ANDREW BAGERLY OCTOBER. THE. 18. 1837.”
Technical note: There are scattered knotted wefts on reverse.
Label TextThis coverlet was woven in a weft-loop technique, which could be done manually on simple looms without sophisticated patterning attachments. Using a hook or fingers, the weaver pulled the heavy secondary weft yarns up in loops at intervals on the front surface. The technique, known in Canada by the French term boutonné and in the United States as weft loop, utilized an additional heavier weft plus the finer warps and wefts that formed the ground.

The weft-loop technique dates back to approximately 2000 B.C. in Egypt. In the nineteenth century, weavers in Bolton, England, produced textiles for both domestic use and export using the weft-loop technique. The popular coverlets were also made in the United States. This coverlet carries the woven inscription "ANDREW BAGERLY OCTOBER. THE.18. 1837." Bagerly was a business and licensed peddler in Iredell County, North Carolina. It's likely that the coverlet was woven in Iredell County, or a neighboring North Carolina Back Country county.
Inscribed“ANDREW BAGERLY OCTOBER. THE. 18. 1837.”
ProvenanceThe coverlet bears the inscription "ANDREW BAGERLY OCTOBER. THE. 18. 1837" and was probably woven for him. Bagerly was a business man and licensed peddler in Iredell County, North Carolina. Andrew Morrison provided capital for one of Bagerly's enterprises at Eagle Mills, which at one time had a cotton factory, grist mill, linseed oil mill, and several factories. The coverlet descended in the Morrison family until it was given to the museum. The family does not know exactly how they came to own the coverlet.