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Patchwork coverlet
Unknown - Enlarge image
Patchwork coverlet
- Place of origin:
Somerset, England (made)
- Date:
1802-1830 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Unknown (maker)
- Materials and Techniques:
Embroidered and pieced printed cotton and linen
- Credit Line:
Given by the Coate family in memory of Randoll Coate
- Museum number:
T.32-2007
- Gallery location:
In Storage
This coverlet is a striking example of the craft of patchwork, a popular pastime in the nineteenth century. The overall design combines a variety of blocks or shapes, with appliquéd flowers, and an embrodiered central medallion. Ann Randoll was part of the Coate family of Somerset, but it has not been possible to find out anything about her despite considerable genealogical research. Several printed cottons date from after 1802, so this may be her birth or another significant family date, rather than the date the patchwork was completed.
The coverlet is composed of hundreds of tiny pieces of printed cotton, and some printed linen, and together these show the development of textile printing from about 1780 to the1820s. One stylised flower printed in red on green comes from India, where the technique of printing with wooden blocks on cotton was first perfected. Another fabric used was a large-scale furnishing linen, printed in France. The coverlet is dominated by the many attractive, small-scale floral sprigs and stripes that became so fashionable in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, and show the great variety of designs that became available from Britain's manufacturers as mechanisation and technology improved.
