Description:
Coverlet made of three lengths of 31.0" wide hand-woven, cream colored wool joined by butting selvedges, and decorated overall with polychrome crewel embroidery with a large flower vase and stylized flowers and leaves in surface satin stitch and French knots in two shades of indigo and rust-colored brown wool. There is a saw-tooth embroidered band (same surface satin stitch) around all four sides. According to family tradition, this coverlet was made before 1800 by a member of the Collins family of Ashfield, and was handed down to a daughter in each generation. Provenance of the related families from this area includes: Almira Collins of Ashfield who married Lyman Bradford (1803-1837) of Conway in 1828; to their daughter Lurane Bradford (b.1836) who married Samuel Wells (1828-1873) of Deerfield in 1857; to their daughter Ella Maria Wells (b.1863) who married Horatio Clifford Hawks (1862-1934) who moved from Deerfield to Boston; to their daughter Marqurite Lurane Hawks (b.1891) from whom it was purchased, circa 1978. There is an identical coverlet in the collection of the Williamsburg (Mass.) Historical Society.
Label Text:
Celebrating the Fiber Arts 2008: Relatively large measuring 102 inches by 91 inches, this sumptious embroidered blanket consists of three widths of hand-woven twill wool, stitched together and then embroidered with only four different colors of hand-dyed wools. (dark and light blue, most certainly indigo, a light golden yellow, possibly sumac, and a rich cinnamon brown color, possibly a combination of madder and butternut?) Because of the juxtaposition of the colors, the piece appears to contain a much wilder range
than the simple four seen here. Centered around a stylized basket with borders of floral designs in profusion, this richly-colored textile would have shown up brilliantly in the soft light of an early American bed chamber. The intensity of the colors after nearly 200 years is still surprising.
Subjects:
Textile fabrics; Embroidery; polychrome; Wool Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+95.011 |
