Cover for a baby's carrying bed, of cotton with lace and embroidery, German, late 19th century

Cover for a baby's carrying bed. The cover is of unlined écru cotton edged with coarse bobbin lace made from unbleached thread, and the front flap is decorated with a cropped wedge-shaped panel made up of alternating horizontal bands of matching lace and machine embroidered cutwork insertion. The base is made in the form of a long rectangular pillowcase, with a curved top edge, into which a shaped pad was inserted to form the carrying bed. When the baby was laid on top, the two rectangular side flaps were pulled across its body and tied together with five pairs of cotton tape tying strings; the decorative front flap, also constructed like a pillowcase to take a small quilt, was pulled up over that and fastened at the corners with a pair of cotton tape tying strings at each side.

Given by Lady Copisarow

Bought by the donor at Christie's (South Kensington) in 1997 as part of a lot

Attribution note: The cover and lace trimming are likely to have been made by outworkers for a commercial outlet; the embroidered insertion is factory made.
Reason For Production: Retail

The cover is associated with the ancient custom of swaddling babies: wrapping them tightly in strips of linen after dressing them in a few basic garments such as a nappy and shirt. The custom was thought to keep their limbs and spines straight, as well as making them warmer and more placid, and restraining them. By the end of the eighteenth century, it was largely discontinued in the UK and USA, but continued in other European countries, notably Germany and Italy. The swaddled baby in Germany was further wrapped in one of these covers, developed from the earlier habit of carrying the baby on a decorated pillow. A cover like this would have been used over a padded base, and had the advantage of being both removable and washable, unlike some of its predecessors.

B.39-1998