Embroidered Blanket or Coverlet

Date1840

Artist/Maker M. H.

OriginAmerica, Ohio, Ashtabula County, Lenox

MediumWhite cotton warp and weft; blue wool pattern warp and weft; wool embroidery threads (fiber identification by microscope)

Dimensions80 x 76" (203.2 cm. x 193.0 cm.)

Credit LineGift of Mr. & Mrs. Foster McCarl, Jr.

Object number1978.609.9

DescriptionThis is a rectangular blanket woven in twill weave using white cotton and dark indigo wool in a pattern of 8 X 8 3/4-inch windowpane checks. The left and right side borders are woven with slightly narrower checks. Each white check of the blanket is embellished with crewel embroidered meandering stems with flowers and leaves in indigo and peach (stem stitch and variation of herringbone stitch). It has an applied fringe on three sides, alternating blocks of white cotton, indigo wool, and peach wool. The blanket is seamed down the center. The upper portion of the blanket has script embroidered words reading "February the 26 1840 M [blank space] H [blank space] Lenox Ashtabula Ohio." Much of this writing appears to be a later replacement using lighter blue wool, though following the original lines of stitching.
Stitches: stem, variation of herringbone
Label TextEven functional, warm blankets could be surfaces for the embroiderer's art. In this example, a blanket woven of heavy white cotton crossed with blue wool is overlaid with embroidered meandering vines after weaving. The stems cross at the corners of the plaid, leaving the white squares to be filled with flowers and leaves.

The embroiderer, known only by the initials M. H., inscribed the blanket with the date, "February the 26 1840" and the place, "Lenox, Ashtabula, Ohio." As the embroidery wore, a later embroiderer filled in some of the missing stitches with lighter blue yarn. The significance of the date is unknown, but may represent a wedding or the birth of a child.

Bedcovers were often embroidered with colored wools in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but examples like this one that were worked on a woven plaid ground seem to have been especially popular about 1830-1850. Some such covers featured varied embroidered motifs, whereas others consist of repetitions of the same basic design from one square to another. In this case, the motifs in the perimeter blocks were modified and their vines reoriented to form a twining border.
MarkingsIn wool embroidery in script across the top edge of the cover is "February the 28 1840 M H Lenox(?) Ashtabula Ohio."
ProvenanceGift of Mr. and Mrs. Foster McCarl, Jr., Beaver Falls, Pa.