Jacquard Coverlet

OMAFP.2024.14, Ulster American Folk Park Collection

rlet with circle and cross patterns in green, red, blue, and cream.

Jacquard Coverlet
Peter Lorenz
OMAFP.2024.14

This bedcover was made by Peter Lorenz in 1840. Peter was born in France. He emigrated to the United States of America and lived in Germantown, Ohio. He worked as a jacquard weaver, making decorative woven bedcovers.

A large woven coverlet with circle and cross patterns in green, red, blue, and cream.

This coverlet is woven in two long strips sewn together along a central seam. The vertical warp threads are made from cream and pale blue cotton. The colourful horizontal weft threads are made from red, green and blue wool. Peter has woven his name ‘Peter Lorenz’ and the date ‘1840’ at the lower corners.

The front and back of the corner of a woven coverlet. In both, the pattern reads 'Peter Lorenz 1840', but in contrasting colours.

Jacquard bedcovers like these were popular in the United States of America from the 1830s to the 1850s.

While both sides of the coverlet look beautiful, the cut edge of the woven fabric along the top is turned over and seamed to stop it unravelling, most likely to the back. This would leave the side with the colourful shapes against a cream background as the front.

A previous owner of the coverlet lived in Chicago, Illinois. Her family emigrated to the United States from Germany.