Price: on request
Ref N°: 9021
A central star with a very large medallion filled with stylised flower and leaf sprays, all surrounded by a trellis and large swags with smaller stylised flowers and leaves, the border with a swag containing a tulip and ?, all worked in white cotton tufts on a thick white cotton ground, woven with I G 1812.
8ft 4 in x 7ft 8 in; 2.54 x 2.35 m
Very good. There are three small splits. 7 cm with a 4 cm split below. The very top edge has a 2 cm split. These were very clumsily sewn together. We have unpicked and sewn very neatly, so you would hardly notice.
Being white this is so difficult to photograph.
Quilt Studies. The Journal of The British Quilt Sutdy Group. Issue 1, 2013 Bolton's Cotton Counterpanes: Hand-Weaving in the Industrial Age. Erin & Laurel Horton p 7 - 36.
The National Trust Book of Furnishing Textiles Pamela Clabburn p 127 in Chapter on Bed Coverings.
Quilts 1700-2010 Hidden Histories, Untold Stories. ed Sue Prichard. p 51.
Textiles in America 1650-1870 Florence M Montgomery p 172/3.
There is a similar coverlet in the collection of The American Museum at Claverton Museum, Bath. Accesion no 1964.764
All images and text © meg-andrews.com 2026
This is white! So difficult to photograph. During the early 18th century and 19th century hand-woven cotton counterpanes or coverlets were woven in vast quantities in Bolton, Lancashire, for the home and international markets in Europe and North America. White coverlets were fashionable, particularly into the early 19th century, giving the room a fresh airy appearance. Beds were high and coverlets would have hung down the sides, hence this one being very large. Manufacturered as a cottage industry. Hand looms produced geometric designs in the town of Bolton, north of Manchester, Lancashire, in the industrial north of England. Hand loom woven on extra wide looms, elimanating the need for a central seam, the weft looped weave was achieved by raising a weft to form a loop, called knops. Each coverlet was indiviually woven and could have inititals or other inscriptions inserted. They were washable and strong. The local trade name for these coverlets or counterpanes was Caddows or Caddow quilts. The method was taken to America by the early settlers where it developed into candlewicking. This coverlet would be ideal for a historic house refurbishment. Presumably the weaver was I.G. and he wove the coverlet in 1812.