"Chariot Wheel" overshot coverlet; 1790-1825; United States
date: label: date made
content: 1800-1816
label: date made
content: c. 1790-1825
notes: label: Description
content: This blue and white, "Chariot Wheel" patterned, overshot coverlet was a bequest to the National Museum in 1934 from the Misses Long, and had been on loan to the Smithsonian’s collection since 1910. One of the earliest coverlets in the collection, it was initially termed a counterpane. The coverlet was part of "The Arts of the Thread" exhibit in the Textile Room at the National Museum (A&I). The Misses Long were sisters living in the Washington, D.C. area and important benefactors of the Smithsonian at the end of the 19th and early decades of the 20th century. This coverlet is just one of many objects left by the sisters after their deaths. The coverlet is made of cotton and wool with two-ply, S-twist, Z-spun cotton warp yarns and Z-spun cotton singles making up the weft. The ground cloth is a plain or tabby weave, and the supplementary float patterning uses a high-twist, Z-spun woolen yarn that has been dyed blue almost certainly with indigo. The coverlet, like all coverlets not woven on a broad loom, has a center seam. The coverlet would have been woven as one 32-inch-wide length, cut in half, then folded back on itself and seamed up the middle, making the whole coverlet 64 inches wide. The use of cotton in the warp dates the coverlet to 1790 at the earliest. The 1825 end date was chosen, because the introduction of the Jacquard patterning mechanism all but replaced traditional overshot patterning in many regions of the United States.
place: label: place made
content: United States
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Textiles
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content: Coverlets
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content: Textiles
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Bequest of the Misses Long
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: TE.L6951
label: accession number
content: 113420
objectType: label: Object Name
content: coverlet, overshot
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: cotton, wool (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: indigo blue, white (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: "Chariot Wheel" (overall pattern)
label: Physical Description
content: overshot (overall production method/technique)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 64 in; 162.56 cm