Peter Stauffer overshot coverlet sample, early 1800s
date: label: date made
content: ca 1810 - 1831
notes: label: Description
content: Peter Stauffer was a professional weaver in Chester County, Pennsylvania in the early nineteenth century. He recorded payments for coverlets and tablecloths that he wove for local customers in his account book, dating between 1810 and 1831, (object number TE*T14233). This piece is a hemmed fragment of a larger coverlet in the “Star and Diamond” pattern, woven by Stauffer in red, dark blue and green wool with white cotton. Stauffer also wove small samples of different coverlet patterns to advertise his skills and help customers select designs; one of these was also acquired by the museum. According to his accounts, by the later 1820s Stauffer made fewer coverlets, likely losing this business to the coverlets with realistic floral and other complex patterns produced on the newly popular, mechanized, jacquard looms. In 1812, Stauffer married Suzanna Hartz. The family soon switched professions, working as carpet weavers and later in iron foundries.
place: label: place made
content: United States: Pennsylvania, Chester
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Textiles
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content: American Enterprise
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content: Coverlets
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content: Domestic Furnishings
label: Exhibition
content: American Enterprise
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Miriam D. Hosler
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: TE.T11195
label: catalog number
content: T11195
label: accession number
content: 206774
objectType: label: Object Name
content: coverlet fragment, overshot
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: overshot (overall production method/technique)
label: Physical Description
content: cotton, wool (overall material)