Adapted pattern from chrysanthemum patterns found in Needle and Hook produced by Belding Bros. & Co and Embroidery Lessons by Brainerd and Armstrong. Both were manufactures of silk thread, and each advertised as having the best silk. Used for TE*T14423.
This lace pattern is printed on light brown thin cardboard. It is titled Net Ground and copyrighted 1904. All rights reserved. Two rows of dots with the first six connected with a zig-zag line and tiny numbers indicate the order of making the lace. The corresponding instructions are printed in The American Lace Maker, Volume 1, pages 2 and 3, as Lesson No. 1. This pattern was used for the first 7 inches.
A lamp mat or "lamp rug." It is hand embroidered with a cross stitch floral pattern in woolen yarn on a linen base, surrounded by a border of turkey work or plush stitch. Woolen fruits attached to this border.
This well-balanced medallion quilt is important for the fabrics used. Cut segments from four different roller-printed cottons produced in the 1830s and 1840s were utilized to create the overall design. The center panel, 57-inches x 57-inches, is appliqued with four large floral wreaths, small baskets and sprays of flowers. It is framed by two 7½-inch floral stripe borders and a 14-inch white border appliqued with small baskets, sprays of flowers, and four eagles, one in each corner. Outline quilting accentuates each of the appliqued motifs on this mid-19th century quilt.
The pieces that are used to make the 71 “LeMoyne Star” blocks on this quilt create a useful record. They represent an assortment of fabrics used for ordinary mid-19th century clothes. Brown, tan, grey, and rust-colored fabrics, most twill-woven cotton/wool, were used to piece the blocks. These alternate with 6 ½-inch squares of brown and grey striped cotton/wool fabric. The quilt is lined with a plain-weave, cotton warp/wool weft fabric. Brown carded wool serves as the filling. The quilting pattern consists of parallel diagonal lines 1 ½-inch apart, quilted at 3-4 stitches per inch.
The machine- and hand-woven textile examples might not otherwise have been preserved if not used to craft this quilt.
Embroidered in dark brown silk cross-stitches and eye-stitches along the top right edge of the center of this quilt is "M. Campbell 1795." This quilt is a rare dated and signed example of the use of reverse appliqué which is found in the center panel and the eight border motifs. In reverse appliqué, the positions of the pattern and background fabrics are reversed from those of onlaid appliqué. The silhouette of the pattern is cut out of the background fabric, and openings are filled by applying a contrasting fabric from underneath. It was not often used in American quilts. The remainder of the quilt top is of geometric pieced work.
Block printed cotton fabrics of floral prints, stripes, and small geometrics, mostly on brown or tan grounds, were used for the appliqué and piecework. The lining is linen and the filling cotton. All appliquéd motifs are outline quilted along both the inside and outside edges. The white backgrounds, center border, and printed fabric blocks in the outer border are quilted in a diagonal grid and chevron patterns, seven stitches to the inch. M. Campbell's skillfully worked quilt is a notable example of the reverse appliqué technique.
Circular urn-shaped pitcher on a double-domed, circular pedestal base with large, thick scrolls of flat-chased and repousse grapevines on its ovoid body forming a symmetrical reserve at front engraved in script "Presented / to / Daniel Woodward Esq"r. / By the hands employed by him / in No 1 Basement Room Tremont Mill. / Lowell April 9\th/.. 1859." Applied beading at deeply curved rim with wide pouring lip, top of pedestal and bottom of base; large raised bead around shoulder. Cast and flat-chased, S-curve grapevine handle. Circular medallion or tag applied to underside of rounded bottom is embossed "* ROGERS, SMITH & C\o/. (arched) / (flourish) / N\o. / NEW HAVEN, C\T/. *" and struck incuse at center "1856".
According to family information, Jane Alcock made this counterpane in a convent school in England a few years before running away to Barbados and marrying William Atlee (1696-1744) on June 1, 1734. A few weeks later the couple settled in Philadelphia. Jane was born in 1695 in England and died in 1777 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
The scrollwork-and-flower design is appliquéd, held in place by a linen-thread cord, on a dark blue satin ground. The elegant counterpane remained in the family until its donation in 1985.
This flounce of stylized floral motifs is executed in Blonde bobbin lace. The flounce is made of cream colored silk thread in three sizes. The ground is point ground, with the motifs made in dense linen stitches and lighter half stitches outlined with a heavy gimp thread. Honeycomb ground is used as decorative fillings. The flounce is edged with a narrow machine made picot edge on both sides.
Elizabeth Smedley made this silk quilt for the trousseau of her niece, Elizabeth Webster Smedley. She married Walter Brinton at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1891. Off white, grey, and tan are used to set off the simple design. Chevron pattern quilting is used for the vertical bands, and the border is quilted in a cable pattern. The whole imparts a quiet elegance typical of Quaker quilts of the 19th century.
Archibald Davidson (b. 1771), proprietor of the Ithaca Carpet Factory, wove this blue and white, Figured and Fancy, double- cloth coverlet in 1838. This centerfield design features a stylized “Double Tulip” carpet medallion motif offset by floral diamond motifs. The coverlet features borders along three side. The two side borders are composed of an adorsed “Stag and Tree,” and the bottom border is composed of a more developed Independence Hall and Great Seal Eagle border found on earlier Davidson coverlets. In the lower two corners, the words "Woven at the Ithaca Carpet Factory by Arch'd Davidson 1838" appear. This coverlet belonged to James Madison Wheeler, grandfather of the donor. Archibald Davidson was born in Scotland in 1771, where he was trained as a weaver. He married Jane McPhail on December 10, 1795 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and they had five sons, one born in Pennsylvania and the other four in New Jersey. They later lived in both Tompkins and Warsaw Counties, New York. Davidson died January 5, 1854. This coverlet is composed of two panels woven as one length, cut, and sewn together to create the finished width.