Counterpane, Whte Embroidery, by Sarah Wisdom Fulcher

Date1812-1818

Artist/Maker Sarah Wisdom Fulcher (1796-1873)

MediumPlain woven cotton embroidered with cotton

DimensionsOW: 87 1/2" x OH: 106"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1981.609.3

DescriptionThis is a tabby-woven white cotton rectangular bedcover hand-embroidered in a variety of stitches in white cotton. The design consists of a central oval medallion containing a standing man and woman in a wheat field next to a building with scattered trees. Birds and insects fly through the air above them. A second couple cuts and gathers wheat to their left and a second building surrounded by a fence appears at upper left in the medallion. The medallion is formed by a scalloped edge flower and vine design.
Centered below the medallion is the embroidered signature line, "ALEXANDER. &. SALLEY. B. FULCHER./ 1818."
The outer borders are filled by an elaborate flowering vine design with four baskets (each different) inside the vine design in each of the four corners.
Construction Notes: The ground consists of three pieces of plain weave white cotton (29 inches each) joined lengthwise with a butted selvage whipped seam. It is hemmed in a 3/16-inch rolled hem on all four sides.
A variety of ornamental stitches were used to create the pictorial designs and include: bullion, buttonhole, chain variation, coral knot, cut, feather, flat, French knot, outline, satin (long and short and satin filling), seed, and stem

Label TextThe detailed complexity within the scalloped oval medallion, artful design of the outer floral and foliage border, and the proficiency of the overall workmanship of this bedcover combine to make it an outstanding example of Virginia needlework. Sarah B. Wisdom Fulcher's counterpane was probably inspired by an engraving of "Palemon and Lavinia" published in James Thomson's THE SEASONS, WITH THE CASTLE OF INDOLENCE POEMS, which was printed in Philadelphia in 1804. The subject was an updated and romanticized version of the Biblical tale of Ruth and Boaz as told by Thomson (1700-1748) in the "Autumn" segment of his popular poem cycle, THE SEASONS.
Sarah used a wide variety of ornamental stitches to create different textures in the embroidered designs worked in the cover. Note, for instance, the cut threads used to simulate hair on the two female figures in the central medallion, the stitches used to suggest buttons on the center man's coat, and the depiction of bricks in both buildings within the medallion.
Born in Virginia in 1796, Sarah B. Wisdom was the daughter of Tavnor W. Wisdom, a "well-to-do" planter of Spotsylvania County, Virginia. She is said to have begun work on this spectacular bedcover in 1812--the year she married Alexander Fulcher of Richmond and Goochland Counties--and to have finished it in the inscribed year, 1818, marking it with the inscription, "Alexander & Salley B. Fulcher." They had seven children. In 1831, Alexander and Salley moved to Kentucky, where they resided until their deaths in 1853 and 1873 respectively. The counterpane descended in the maker's family until 1981, when it was acquired by the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum.
MarkingsHandwritten in red indelible ink on the reverse of the lower left corner is "Witt."
ProvenanceProvidence of counterpane:
The counterpane descended from the maker to her daughter, Caroline America Fulcher (Mrs. William Henry Nelson, 1830-1883); to her only child Cynthia Anna Nelson (Mrs. Robert Paine Witt, Sr., 1858-1945); to her son, Robert Paine Witt, Jr., (1896-1981); to his daughter, Mrs. Lester S. Carmichael. It then went to Stephen and Carol Huber; William E. Wiltshire, III; and vendor from whom it was acquired.

History of maker:
Born in Virginia in 1796, Sarah B. Wisdom Fulcher, known as Salley, was the daughter of Tavnor W. Wisdom, a "well-to-do" planter of Spotsylvania County, Virginia. She is said to have begun work on this spectacular bedcover in 1812--the year she married Alexander Fulcher of Richmond and Goochland Counties--and to have finished it in the inscribed year, 1818, marking it with the inscription, "Alexander & Salley B. Fulcher." The son of Philip Fulcher, Dr. Alexander Fulcher was born in Richmond, Virginia in 1791 and served as a soldier in the War of 1821. The couple had seven children:
John W. Fulcher (b. 1826)
Caroline America Fulcher (b. 1830 in Richmond, d. 1883)
Joseph J. Fulcher
Emily W. Fulcher
George W. Fulcher
Lucy A. Fulcher
Alexander Fulcher
In 1831, Alexander and Salley moved to Todd County, Kentucky, where they resided until their deaths in 1853 and 1873 respectively.