November's Object of the Month is a perfect piece of folk art to keep you warm on a chilly New England night. For early colonial settlers in America, the bed rug, a large coverlet of two or three widths of homespun wool worked with wool embroidery, was indispensable. Women often personalized these practical textiles with grand, floral compositions and, occasionally, signatures and dates.
By the early nineteenth century, sewers adapted the bed rug to utilize less wool by embroidering only the composition, rather than the entire ground, which saved on materials, time, and effort. This rare crewelwork bedcover is a star example of this economical evolution in the history of the bed rug. Its design of a pinwheel or starburst with pinecones, flowers, and rosettes along a serpentine vine relates to a small group of surviving bedcovers made in Massachusetts, the Connecticut River Valley, and New York between the 1800s and 1830s.
Embroidered wool bedcover, American (New England), ca. 1820s and possibly later.
