Samuel Hippert; coverlet, Jacquard, tied-Beiderwand; 1837; Pennsylvania
date: label: Date made
content: 1837
name: label: weaver
content: Hippert, Samuel
notes: label: Description
content: Samuel Hippert wove this Jacquard, tied-Beiderwand coverlet which features a carpet medallion center field in a stylized “Double Iris” pattern. The bottom and side borders feature pairs of addorsed roosters and garland inner border, inscribed mid-border featuring the weaver’s initials and the word patent, and double flower outer border. The inscribed cornerblocks contain the initials S.H., the location, Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, and the date, 1837. The use of the term patent in the border indicates that Hippert was weaving on an improved loom with a registered patent. It is possible that Hippert was weaving with the improved carpet and coverlet loom patented by fellow coverlet weavers and industrial machinists, Jonathan Conger and George Deterich. Conger and Deterich registered their patent in 1831. Structurally, the coverlet is 2:1 tied-Beiderwand, an integrated weave structure where evenly spaced warp yarns are dedicated to binding or tying two separate weave structures together on alternating sides of the fabric. This alternation creates a ribbed effect on the surface of the textile that makes this structure easy to identify. The weaver used rose, dark blue, white and green 2-ply , S-twist, Z-spun wool, and Z-spun white cotton singles for the weft or filling and light blue Z-spun singles for the tying warp and 2-ply, S-twist, Z-spun cotton for the remainder of the warp yarns. The coverlet was woven in two lengthwise panels and may have been originally been longer. There is significant damage and loss across the top half of the coverlet likely due to insects and storage issues. It is possible it was re-hemmed sometime in its past and that some of the length on the top half was removed. At one time there was a self-fringe on each side and an applied fringe on the lower edge. There is still traces of these fringes remaining.
label: Description
content: Samuel Hippert (Hippard) (1808-1886) was the weaver. According to Clarita Anderson and John Heisey, Hippert was active in Mt. Joy and Elizabethtown, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania into the 1840s. Samuel and his wife, Mary’s youngest child, George was born in Pennsylvania in 1847. The family must have already been planning a move, because the 1850 Federal Census lists Samuel and his family living in Somers, Preble County, Ohio. He is recorded as working as a wool manufacturer. History of Preble County, Ohio (1881) by H.Z. Williams and Brothers further explained that Hippert opened a woolen mill and carding factory 1848 and eventually bought and operated another nearby woolen factory producing roving, yarn, finished cloth, and blankets from 1854-1860. These blankets presumably being coverlets although Hippert’s signed coverlets all come from his time in Lancaster County. The 1860 Federal Census recorded Samuel and his family living in Cass County, Indiana where he is identified as a wool carder. After that census, Samuel disappears from the record. His wife, Mary, age fifty-six and his son, George, age twenty-three are listed as living in Ward Three, Indianapolis, Indiana in the 1870 Federal Census. George was a clerk at a bookstore, and Mary kept house. What became of Samuel during that decade has thus far remained a mystery. In 1880, George is living in New York City. Samuel apparently returned to Pennsylvania where he died in Harrisburg in 1886. He is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Pennsylvania, Elizabethtown
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Textiles
label: See more items in
content: Coverlets
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content: Textiles
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of R. H. Andrews
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: TE.E259592
label: catalog number
content: E259592.000
label: accession number
content: 051534
objectType: label: Object Name
content: coverlet, figured
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: jacquard (overall production method/technique)
label: Physical Description
content: 2:1 tied-Beiderwand (overall production method/technique)
label: Physical Description
content: red (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: white (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: blue (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: green (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: carpet medallion (border pattern)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 70 in x 75 in; 177.8 cm x 190.5 cm