Coverlet

The Proskauer family, horse farm owners in Kentucky, collected a wide variety of decorative and folk arts. They acquired American textiles, weather vanes, whirligigs, folk sculpture, table and mantel ornaments, baskets, ceramic wares, and all kinds of antique toys, including delightful penny banks with moving parts designed to make saving money an enjoyable pastime.

This mid-nineteenth-century coverlet was made from homespun natural cotton and indigo-dyed wool. The elaborate pattern of large and small floral medallions, delicate rosettes and double blossoms were woven on a Jacquard loom. Pattern books were available that directed the loom settings for an almost limitless variety of design motifs including flowers, animals, birds, scrolls, landscape elements, buildings, crests, monograms, and words.