Quilt, Loom-Woven by Unknown Maker

Dateca. 1827

OriginEngland; used in America, Pennsylvania, Reading

MediumCotton loom-woven quilting

DimensionsOH: 117"; OW: 109 1/2"

Credit LineGift of Beatrix T. Rumford

Object number1999-219

DescriptionThis is a large rectangular white bed coverlet. Often referred to as a "Marseilles" bed cover, this is loom woven full width, without a center seam, in multi-layer technique with extra weft padding to imitate hand quilting. A central oval medallion is set within a rectangle, with stags, hounds, and birds in the quarters. The central motif is surrounded by a dense field of flowers, leaves, sunbursts, straight strings of beads, and birds. The motifs repeat in mirror fashion. The single narrow borders at top and bottom and double borders on the sides feature repeated anthemion. Fringe is stitched to sides and bottom; top has a rolled hem.
InscribedNone
MarkingsNone
ProvenanceFamily tradition (transcribed from a storage box) states that this was the "Brides Quilt" of Emily H. Badger when she married Levi Smith, April 10, 1827, in Reading, Pennsylvania. Emily Hannah Badger Smith was born in Bucksport, Maine in 1806 and died in Reading, Pennsylvania in 1882. She was the great-grandmother of Rose Clymer Rumford (Mrs. Lewis Rumford), to whom the counterpane was given by Elsie B. Clymer in November of 1955. The coverlet then came to Rose and Lewis Rumford's daughter, Beatrix Rumford.