Coverlets of New York State.

Regional studies of American coverlets are quite advanced at this point, in large part because many professionally woven examples from the first half of the nineteenth century bear inscriptions that can include names, dates, and place names. This is not the case for coverlets made on household looms, which also vary considerably in the complexity of the patterns, but generally do not contain any text. A small exhibition that surveys the tradition of making coverlets in New York State is on view at the Museum of Art at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute in Utica, New York, through January 2, 2005. The show is entitled Fruits of the Loom: Coverlets from the Permanent Collection and includes some fifteen examples.

A catalyst for this exhibition was the recent donation of a rare red and white figured coverlet (illustrated on p. 20) that descended in the family of the donor; Thomas G. Schafer, from the time it was made in 1836 for Mary Chadwick on the occasion of her marriage to G. W. H. Fisk. The earliest bedcovers produced in New York State on household looms are called geometric coverlets, so named for the blocks of repeated geometric designs that form the overall pattern. The wool that the male or female weavers used for a coverlet was carded at home or at a nearby carding mill. Likewise cotton was spun at home or purchased locally. The same options were available for dyeing the wool or cotton, which could be accomplished by professionals or achieved at home using dyes such as madder, cochineal, and indigo.

The more sophisticated figured ...