Treasures: Beyond bedspreads, coverlet looms large

Dear Helaine and Joe: This coverlet belonged to my great-great-grandmother, who lived in Pennsylvania. It is a double-woven bed covering with a square in the bottom that reads "Jacob Shalk 1836 B-F." Overall, the piece is in good condition, although one edge is frayed. What is the value? — W.K., Broken Bow, Neb.

Dear W.K.: The word "coverlet" is derived from the Middle English word "coverlite" or "coverlid," which literally means "to cover the bed." Well, a beautiful woolen spread such as this one will certainly cover a bed, but more important, this and similar items were essential in our ancestors' homes, because without them (and home-pieced quilts), people would have been quite uncomfortable during the cold nights of winter.

This coverlet would not have been possible without the invention of a loom attachment by French weaver Joseph Jacquard (1752-1834). He created a device for use on double-weave looms that used a series of cards with punched holes — much like the holes on a player piano's roll music — and these cards guided the creation of specific designs.

This attachment, which first appeared in the United States in the 1820s, allowed the weaver to create intricate patterns and coverlets that did not have a seam down the middle. This was a great improvement over the seamed "overshot" coverlets that had been made on looms since the 18th century.

Professional weavers — such as Jacob Shalk, who made this particular example — often mounted their looms with the Jacquard attachments on a wagon that traveled from community to community. At each stop, farmers who had harvested their own wool or created their own linen yarn from flax plants brought the already home-dyed material to the itinerant weavers to turn into coverlets.

After the selection of a pattern, the weaver would create the desired bed covering, often with a square in one corner that identified the maker, the date, sometimes the location and sometimes the name of the person for whom the coverlet was woven. The variation in these Jacquard coverlets was truly amazing, both in color and design.

Spectacular examples might have a depiction of "Boston Town," with ships in the harbor ready to sail to China, or representations of lions, monkeys or peacocks. The example belonging to W.K. shows a flower, star, leaf and wreath center woven in three colors (red, blue and cream), with an alternating eagle and tree border accented with rows of red and blue stars at the binding.

The coverlet's maker, Jacob Shalk, became an active weaver in Pennsylvania in the 1830s and in Ohio between 1840 and 1850. He died in Pennsylvania in 1864.