Embroidered coverlet

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This coverlet is embroidered in patterns of flowers and scrolls through two layers of linen. The overall pattern shows central floral vines and sprigs, with a meandering floral vine border. The embroidery contains long stitches and cross stitches as well as knots and eyelet stitches binding off the edges of openings through the two layers. The upper layer of fine linen has been cut away around the embroidered motifs, leaving the exposed under layer of coarser linen. The finer upper layer is still present within the embroidered areas. The coverlet is made up of three narrow panels of linen that have been seamed together. Although this piece came to the Museum with a family history of being owned in Kentucky, it is so stylistically sophisticated and finely embroidered that it seems likely to have been made in England or Ireland, and perhaps brought or sent over to the Kentucky relatives of the donors. Because it features linked initials and the date 1795 at the center, it may have been a bridal coverlet.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.

Metropolitan Museum of Art