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Coverlet

Coverlet

Maker: Henry Keener (American (Womelsdorf, PA), 1812 - 1895)

Date: 1841
Medium: wool
Dimensions:
Overall (including fringes): 102 x 86 1/2 in. (259.1 x 219.7 cm)
Credit Line:Museum Purchase
Object number: 1943.307.1

Keener worked in Womelsdorf, a town which boasted three coverlet manufacturers in the mid-nineteenth century in Berks County.  His extant coverlets date from 1836 to 1847.  He used a jacquard loom attachment and tied-beiderwand weave structure in a distinctive red, black, and blue color scheme with stylized floral and foliate motifs.

The jacquard loom attachment, which utilized commercially available perforated cards to control the elaborate pattern, not only allowed for unlimited design possibilities but also accounted for the similarity between many of the coverlets produced by professional weavers, who were usually men.  A center seam joins the two loom widths of fabric.

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