bedcover

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Overhangs made of what were originally three valances belonging to the complete set. Embroidered with flowering trees, birds, and, in the center, a medallion showing a landscape with a large flowering tree surrounded by deer.
A Collector’s Eye
Author: Donna Ghelerter In celebration of the third annual New York Textile Month, members of the Textile Society of America will author Object of the Day for the month of September. A non-profit professional organization of scholars, educators, and artists in the field of textiles, TSA provides an international forum for the exchange and dissemination...
Image features: Patches embroidered with flowers and 'japonaise' patterns all in the same grey/blue thread on muslin foundation. The date 1900 is embroidered in the center and there is a repeating border around the edges. The outline the embroidery patterns is visible under the motifs. Backed with white cotton, quilted in straight lines. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
An Elaborate, Stylized Presentation
Donated to Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum by New York-based textile dealer Elinor Merrell, this bedcover offers an opportunity to see how motifs employed in America were influenced by distant cultures. In the hands of a highly skilled needle-worker deft at using stem-stitch, satin-stitch, and button-hole stitch techniques, a rare coverlet was created. This block-style...
Image features: Child's sleeping mat composed of several layers of indigo dyed cotton fabrics, patched and heavily stitched. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Pieced and Patched
Today, indigo-dyed cotton cloth and clothing are emblematic of Japanese folk traditions. But cotton is not indigenous to Japan, and for most of Japan’s history, rural clothing was made from available plant fibers: paper mulberry, ramie, nettle, hemp, and wisteria. Cotton, which was originally introduced through Korea and China, was first cultivated in the warmer,...
Image features patchwork medallion with a star pattern in unbleached cotton and three roller-printed cottons in browns, tans and pinks. Handwritten in dark brown ink in the center circle: "Olivia C. Whitridge, New Bedford, 1853." Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
A Lasting Remnant of a Friendship
Olivia Cushing Whitridge (1783-1876) was born to a prominent New England family with ties to Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Maine. She married William Whitridge, and the couple lived in New Bedford, Massachusetts. It was in New Bedford, a whaling town, that Olivia C. Whitridge created this “Mariner’s Compass” patchwork medallion. The Mariner’s Compass pattern “was...
Image features: Quilt cover for a single bed. Red ground with design of stylized sunflowers and four groups of children engaged in reading, singing in a chorus with the red kerchiefs of the Young Pioneers, and dancing, some in ethnic costume. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Young Pioneers
The Young Pioneers of China, founded in 1949 as a Communist group for children aged six to fourteen, flies a red flag with a triangular cutout on its right edge. The group’s Constitution stipulates that members wear red scarves knotted around their necks to correspond with the flag’s missing section. This quilt cover depicts children...
Image features: Quilt cover for a single bed. Bright red ground is printed with dahlias that resemble the paper flowers that were awarded to workers. In the center is a yellow basket with tassels swinging and with three yellow-green mangoes. Behind the basket is the imperial ornamental pillar (huabiao) which is a symbol of political authority that stands in front of Tiananmen Gate. To the left is a drum, cymbals and a musical instrument called an erhu. Behind that motif is a building in which the mango possibly was exhibited. On the right is a bedroll and satchel with the Highest Directive sticking out. Colored balloons float above. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Gift Basket
This quilt cover features a tasseled basket containing three yellow-green mangoes that refer to the mangoes that Mao Zedong (1893-1976) gave to workers. As leader of China’s Communist Party, Mao received a basket of mangoes as a gift from the visiting Pakistani foreign minister in August 1968. Mao re-gifted the non-native delicacies to a group...
Image features: Small pieces of printed cotton in various colors patched to form a star medallion with scalloped outer edge. Each medallion set in white cotton about eighteen inches square. Twenty-five squares, each five by five inches, joined in a grid of strips of printed cotton, predominantly green. The center of each medallion plain white and several have handwritten inscriptions: "Our mother / The First to Cherish / The last to desert us. / Wm D. Jones / Frances L. Jones / May 11, 1845." "Made by Our Mother / Lucy Jones/ for / I.S. and M.P. Jones / 1845 / in her 64th year." "Our Parents / May the Evening of their / lives be as the morning sun / I.P. and M.E. Jones." Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Mariner’s Compass
A very special family quilt in the Mariner’s Compass pattern was given to Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum by Susan Weitzman in 1972. Thanks to thoughtful, easy to read, handwritten inscriptions found on three of the twenty-five squares that make up the quilt, we know that Lacy Jones made the quilt in 1845, and that...
Image features: Bright green synthetic silk quilt cover with a monochrome damask design of a large torch resting on a mountain that represents Yan'an, the northern Shaanxi province town where Mao Zedong and followers regrouped at the end of the Long March. To the right of the torch are two blossoms (possibly hibiscus). The torch motif alternates with mountains topped by the Yan'an pagoda radiating a halo of light. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
The Long March
In 1934, after seven years of civil war between China’s Nationalist and Communist parties, the latter was nearing defeat. Nationalist forces had repeatedly encircled Communist headquarters, and the recently elected Mao Zedong had been removed from his position as chairman. Under new leadership, the waning Communist army broke through its enemy’s fortifications in secret. Thus...
Image features: Patchwork quilt with a stepped squared diamond pattern in ivory, red and green. The ivory fabric forming the stepped diamond is plain. The red and green fabrics forming the lattice and borders are patterned by tiny flowers. The back is red with green edge. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
All in the Family
For centuries, quilt patterns and quilting techniques have been passed down from generation to generation and within generations, from sister-to-sister, cousin-to-cousin, or friend-to-friend. Without formal training, many quilters relied on their more experienced relatives to teach them the best methods. The museum is fortunate to have two quilts from the same family, the Reeds of...