A woven coverlet or coverlid (derived from
Cat.cobre-lit[1]) is a type of
bed covering with a
woven design in colored
woolyarn on a background of natural
linen or
cotton. Coverlets were woven in almost every community in the United States from the
colonial era until the late 19th century.[2]
History
Coverlets of 18th century America were
twill-woven with a linen
warp and woolen
weft. The wool was most often
dyed a dark blue from
indigo, but
madder red,
walnut brown,[2][3] and a lighter "
Williamsburg blue" were also used.
From the turn of the 19th century, simple twill-woven coverlets gave way to patterned hand-woven coverlets made in two different ways:[2]
Overshot weave coverlets were made with a
plain woven undyed cotton warp and weft and repeating geometric patterns made with a supplementary dyed
woolen weft. Made on a simple four-harness
loom, overshot coverlets were often made in the home and remained a common craft in rural
Appalachia into the early 20th century.[4]
Double-cloth coverlets were
double-woven, with two sets of interconnected warps and wefts, requiring the more elaborate looms of professional weavers. Wool for these coverlets was spun (and often dyed) at home and then delivered to a local weaver who made up the coverlet.[2]
Summer-winter coverlets were reversible, and the summer-winter term refers to the structure not the color. The summer-winter coverlet should not be confused with double weave and is more closely related to overshot. Like double weave, it is dark on one side and light on the other but there is only one layer of cloth, therefore it is much lighter in mass and thickness.
Following the introduction of the
jacquard loom in the early 1820s, machine-woven coverlets in large-scale floral designs became popular.[5]
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abcdWeissman, Judith Reiter and Wendy Lavitt: Labors of Love: America's Textiles and Needlwork, 1650-1930, New York, Wings Books, 1987,
ISBN0-517-10136-X, p. 80-97