Description:
Fragment of drawloom-patterned silk lampas (ras de Cecile or ras de Sicile) featuring a vertical, polychrome design of scrolling foliate shapes. The textile descended in the Winslow family of Massachusetts, and is an important example of the ownership of patterned (drawloom-woven) silks in the British North American colonies. Two lengths of patterned silk (each a selvage width of 18 5/8" inches) are whip or overcast stitched together down the center, in the manner of a blanket or bed sheet seam. This construction is in keeping with the Winslow family's use of the fragment as a christening blanket at least as far back as the 19th century. Expensive patterned silk fabrics like this example were owned by very few families in the American colonies during the 17th and 18th centuries. Once worn or used, items were repurposed as fashions changed or items were damaged. This example, originally intended as a dress silk, may have been repeatedly reused until only the two lengths survived, at which time it became a treasured baptismal blanket.

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