Images(3)

Bed Rug

Date1760-1780

Owned by Bowne Family

Owned by Draper Family

OriginAmerica, New York, Long Island

MediumWool yarn on a tabby-woven woolen ground with an added strip of a pattern woven linen-cotton mix that is embroidered with crewel wool embroidery thread

DimensionsOL 79" x OW 97" (fringe included)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1964-481

DescriptionThis is an almost square bed rug worked in yellow, green, blue, and natural yarn with two rounded corners at the bottom. The rug consists of two widths of tabby-woven wool that are joined together with a butted seam. The ground fabric is worked solidly in what Susan Swan terms "flat stitch B," encroaching satin, and outline stitch with tightly twisted two- and three-ply worsted yarn. The design consists of three vines that spring separately from the foot of the rug. The vines meander, branch, and curl vertically in three separate units, filling the whole area with variations of conventionalized carnations, pansies, petaled blossoms, trefoil clover and broad leaves, with a scattering of buds. The corners at the foot of the rug are rounded. The bottom edge of the rug is hemmed. A natural color woven and knotted fringe is attached on three sides. The fringe is composed of two different types of natural two-ply wool. Across the top is a seven-inch wide strip of a pattern-woven linen-cotton that was added later and embroidered to resemble the original bed rug. This strip is worked in red, blue, and yellow crewel embroidery threads.
Label TextAlthough the majority of embroidered bed rugs originated in Connecticut, this piece descended within the Bowne and later Draper families of Long Island, New York. Long running stitches worked through a woolen ground create the design elements, which are then encapsulated within parallel rows of natural-colored yarn. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, "bed rug" meant a heavy bed covering, not a floor covering.
ProvenanceThe bed rug is said to have been owned by the R.S. Bowne family, Bowne House, Flushing, Long Island, New York; having descended through the Draper family.