Thursday, June 23, 2011

Thinking About Antique Textiles: Coverlets & Quilts

Browsing on the internet today I found some pix from Brimfield and this one in particular caught my eye because I have an overshot coverlet that's very similar:


Here's mine, blue and white rather than black and white but also in a type of "pinetree and snowball" pattern. We found it decades ago in the Shenandoah Valley:





This got me to thinking about textiles--coverlets and quilts and antique fabrics of all types, which I've always loved. Fortunately I found the ones I have way back in the 70s, before the big country frenzy accelerated. Now that it's all calmed down and died back, I wonder what's happened to the prices. I just tried looking but didn't have much luck finding anything like what I have on either Etsy or Ebay--but I'm sure they're there; I just didn't have the time to go browsing through dozens of pages on Ebay.

Here's pictures of some of my collection:









Then there are two I've packed away--one is a huge Mariner's Compass quilt that we had on our living room wall in New Jersey for many years, in a very muted red and off-white. But it faded quite a lot, hanging on the wall, and now it's in desperate need of professional cleaning. It's circa 1850, so I no longer trust myself to wash it in the bathtub or try to clean it in the snow, like I used to do--I'm too afraid the colors would will run and I'll spoil it.

The other one my husband gave to me as an anniversary present and it hung above our bed in New Jersey, also for many years until we moved here to New Hampshire. But it, too, needs a proper cleaning and now I'm not sure where we would put it....

Some of the pictures above are a little strange because I simply took my camera and went around photographing them where they were--on beds, over couches, over the balcony/loft in our kitchen. And I'm loathe to sell any of these, but I'm thinking about it...

I think I'm going to start with the last one I put up, as I don't have as much sentimental value attached to that one. The problem now is: what to sell it for?

I also have a huge white Portuguese matelasse coverlet I'm going to sell:


But I'm still pondering the price and looking up what similar ones are going for right now.

This takes some time, pondering....

1 comment:

  1. Thanks, Laurie ~ coming from you and your gorgeous shop, that's a compliment!

    ReplyDelete