Worn in pairs or singly and tied around the waist, pockets were women’s primary means of carrying necessities before purses became commonplace. Notices in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century newspapers frequently reported lost or stolen pockets, and we still remember them today thanks to Lucy Locket.
With the American textile industry still in its infancy around 1800, printed cottons were typically imported from Britain. These roller-printed fabrics, however, date to the 1820s to 1840s and represent a turning point in American production. While most of the cottons used on the front, back, edging, and (unusually) lining of this pocket are of English manufacture, the mid-19th-century cheater cloth seen in two triangles was probably made stateside. A cheater cloth (or, as it was known in the period, patchwork print) is exactly what it sounds like: cotton printed to mimic patchwork. These allowed the quilt maker to get the look of patchwork without cutting, sewing, or appliqué. Used on this pocket, it’s a bit meta: the trompe l’œil patchwork is within a true patchwork of triangles and squares.
Pocket of roller-printed cottons, including a “patchwork print,” the cottons English and American, ca. 1820s–40s.
