Name/Title
Woven Coverlet, Rose PatternEntry/Object ID
2000.0089.0001Description
Bedspread: Woven coverlet in rose pattern with leaf border and corner with woven inscription "THE ROSE 1850" and also in reverse. Brick red and natural threads of spun flax and wool. Double or jacquard weave pattern reverses colors on 2 sides of fabric. Owned by Abigail Phillips Hockenbery (1806-1888,d.in Ripon) and brought to the Hockenbery farm near Dakin School on Brooklyn G. Abigail Hockenbery was the donor"s (Mary Begitschke) great, great, great grandmother. The previous owner was Margaret Ann Hammond Hockenbery (1845-1920) who was the daughter-in-law of Abigail Hockenbery. Size 81" x 87". Some fading, stains, and wear along edges - basically intact and usable.Context
This type of coverlet is known as “Figured and fancy,” and it was woven with specialized programmable looms. Some looms were equipped with a Jacquard attachment that used punch cards to control the patterns in the weave. Each cotton warp thread was attached to a needle that would either go through a hole, raising the corresponding warp thread, or be blocked by the card, causing the warp thread to stay down. This method allowed for the efficient creation of elaborate curvilinear patterns. By the 1820s, the Jacquard machine and others like it came to the U.S. and were adopted by professional weavers. The loom and patterning device used to weave such coverlets would have been cost and space prohibitive for anyone but the professional coverlet weaver. Coverlet making between 1820 and 1860 was generally practiced by men, who wove for clients in workshops. Many weavers were born and trained in Europe and came to the U.S. to practice their trade. Once in the U.S., immigrant weavers often moved beyond coastal cities, where industrialization already had begun, to rural towns of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The coverlets from New York and New Jersey are among the earliest figured and fancy coverlets.
New York and New Jersey coverlets are primarily blue and white, double cloth, featuring complex floral motifs, architectural elements, birds, and stars. Red and white double cloth was also common. One prevalent design was the double roses motif. Many weavers of this period followed the popular taste of the time. Clarita Anderson, author of American Coverlets and Their Weavers, has done extensive research on 19th century coverlets and the weavers themselves. In her book, she affirms that “figured and fancy” coverlets were the preferred style of middle-class Americans throughout much of the nineteenth century.
These coverlets were typically commissioned and purchased as part of a dowry or as a gift to commemorate a special occasion. Many weavers added unique inscriptions, such as their name, location, the year it was made, and the name of the person it was made for. Because the coverlets were meant to be reversible, inscriptions were woven in backwards and forwards, to enable the observer to read it on both sides of the textile.
The Society has two figured and fancy coverlets in its collection. Both belonged to Abilgail Phillips Hockenbery (1806-1888). Abigail was either born in Pennsylvania or New Jersey. She married John Hockenbery in 1837 when he was living in Hunterdon, NJ. Census data indicates that John was employed in agriculture in New Jersey in the 1840s. In the 1850s, the family was living in Philadelphia, specifically the Kensington area. Traditionally, Kensington was known as the original hub of working-class Philadelphia, with both native and immigrant workers living close to their work sites or working at home. The textile trades came to dominate Kensington by the mid-nineteenth century. An 1852, a Philadelphia directory of various trades and manufacturers indicates that John was a trader, dealing in flour and feed. By 1862, perhaps due to the lure of inexpensive land, the family, along with their adult children, had relocated west to Waushara County, Wisconsin.
Of the two “figured and fancy” coverlets, one is woven from natural cotton warp and red wool weft, with double roses and leaf motifs. Each corner has a woven inscription "THE ROSE1850” woven in backwards and forwards, indicating either the date the quilt was made or, perhaps, commemorating a special occasion.
There is evidence to suggest that Abigail Hockenbery, or a member of her family, purchased the quilt from a New York weaver. The Henry Ford Museum has an identical quilt in its collection. According to their records, the “Rose” coverlet was woven by an unknown weaver in New York.Acquisition
Accession
2000.0089Source or Donor
Begitschke, MaryAcquisition Method
GiftLexicon
Nomenclature 4.0
Nomenclature Secondary Object Term
BedspreadNomenclature Primary Object Term
BedcoverNomenclature Class
BeddingNomenclature Category
Category 02: FurnishingsSearch Terms
Bedspread, Bedding
