Description:
Cotton and linen whitework coverlet or counterpane made of white woven cotton and linen with a horizontal rib spaced about 1/8" apart, onto which is embroidered baskets of flowers, meandering vines and floral motifs in thick cotton threads in a style known as "candlewicking" because of the thick thread's resemblance to a candle's wick and embroidered "ABIGAIL LEVERETT / 1792" in the top border. The two bottom corners have been altered to round the original square corners. Abigail Leverett (1761-1825) was the daughter of John Leverett (1726-1777) and Mary Greenleaf (d.1795) of Boston who married in 1757 and moved to Middletown, Connecticut, in 1775 when the English invaded Boston. The coverlet was likely made by Leverett in preparation for a future marriage; in 1796, Abigail became the second wife of Nathaniel Brush (1741-1803), the son of Reuben Brush (1712-1774) and Ruth Wood Brush (1715-1810) of Huntington, Long Island, New York. Nathaniel Brush's first wife was Samantha Dewey (1743-1789) with whom he had five children. Brush practiced law in New York until about 1770 when he moved to Bennington, Vermont, where he was active in civic affairs. He and Abigail Leverett Brush had three daughters; in 1820, Adela (1796-1880), to whom the coverlet descended, became the fourth wife of Ebenezer Torrey Englesby (1777-1854), the son of Cuthbert Englesby and Abigail Torrey (b.1745) of Boston, and a successful businessman and President of the Bank of Burlington from 1820-1849 in Burlington. Vermont. Their son was Leverett Brush Englesby (1827-1881), a lawyer in Burlington, and their grandson, Leverett F. Englesby, was also a lawyer in Burlington. The period term for this kind of embroidery is "knotted counterpane" as found in a c.1854 Illinois reference by Gail Bakkom and referred to by former Winterthur textile curator and author, Susan Swan. White bed coverings, such as this example with white embroidery or surface design, are referred to as "whitework," and frequently appear on examples dating to the early 19th century. Although more difficult to keep clean, white domestic textiles, especially those made from cotton, could be easily laundered. The coverlet was likely made by Leverett in preparation for her future marriage.
Subjects:
Textile fabrics; Cotton; Embroidery; Linen Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+F.731 |
