User:TrudiJ/Bed rugs

Bed rugs are embroidered bed covers made primarily in the United States during the 1700s and early 1800s. The earliest were made in Eastern Massachusetts, though many have been found in the Connecticut River Valley. They involve wool stitching on either wool or linen backings. They differ from other embroidered coverlets in that rug embroidery covered the surface. Bed rugs were xxx

Description

Bed rugs (or "ruggs") were rough handwoven and hand-decorated textiles meant to serve as the topmost layer of bedding, particularly in cold weather. Bed rugs are heavy, feature either pile or a smooth face, may have shaped ends, and are worked in multicolor wool yarns on a woven foundation. They were used in the 17th through early 19th centuries. Bed rugs began as carpet-like textiles, and were more common in 18th century than floor rugs. In his Draper's Dictionary (1882), William Beck noted that the term rug was only used in America to describe the coverings for ordinary beds. A 1656 inventories of Mistress Glover's household items a number of rugs as bed furnishings. In an examination of hundreds of inventories the words "bed" and "rug" had only been found together twice at the time of the source's publication in 1972. Both instances were in Roxbury, Massachussets, in 1733, a feltmaker had 3 bed rugs and in 1746, a man had one smaller and one larger bed rug. Many of the surviving bed rugs have been found in the Connecticut River Valley, but others were produced elsewhere in New England, including Vermont, New Hampshire, and beyond. These bed coverings differ from other types in that there entire tops are embroidered. (NEED Citation). The reason that bed rugs were meant as the top layer of bedding was due to their weight. They needed to be able to be thrown off when temperatures were more moderate.

Bed rugs are an original American art form, one that was not commercial, but rather produced entirely in a household, from the woven fabric to the prepared sheep wool, spun and dyed, and then the design and stitching of the rug.

Sources provide conflicting information about bed rugs. Older sources have become dated as bed rugs have been more closely examined, and as additional records and examples have been found.

Types of top layers of bedding

There is difficulty in determining exactly what the earliest bed rugs looked like in America, and how they differed from a coverlet, because no examples have survived from the 1600s, although there are records of them from this early period.Indeed, when Homer Eaton Keyes, who edited Antiques magazine, first came upon a bed rug in 1923, he described it as "a wool-on-wool bedcover " and thought that the example he had encountered was one of a kind. Another type of bed covering, quilts, were thought to be popular. Researchers examining wills and probate records from New England, however, found that pieced quilts were rare due to their expense. Bed rugs and coverlets were far more likely to be listed in these inventories. [What about counterpanes? Marshall p. 2)

Counterpanes?

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XXX they morphed into more elegant, hand-embroidered items, with designs selected and executed by the owner of each bed rug. There is a difference between embroidered bed rugs and other embroidered covers: bed rugs are entirely covered with embroidery. They served as a testament to the needlework abilities of the lady of the house.

Categories

These three types are those worked with a needle through woven cloth, often depicting flowers, and frequently signed by the

Designs

An 1803 bed rug owned by the Fairbanks family of New Hampshire features a carnation motif. This same motif is found in approximately a dozen other bed rugs from the Connecticut River Vallely. Pattern books from England included this type of motif, and may have been the source of designs for some of the bed rugs. The flame stitch pattern worked in bright wool yarns is another design found in bed rugs, as are hearts and flowers. There were no pattern books specifically for bed rugs. Women used the same pattern books as they did for samplers and crewel embroidery.

Stitches

Existing bed rugs were sewn with a running stitch using using multi-plied yarn on wool or linen woven fabric. The stitches were formed with loops on the top of the fabric and running stitches on the back. The front loops could be cut to form pile, which caused them to be confused by some with hooked rugs. Some examples have rounded corners for the bottom of the bed, and a straight edge for the top. They were often signed or initialed and dated, possibly due to the large amount of work required.

Derivation of the term

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, one of the definitions of "rug," which was first used in 1591, is "A thick woollen blanket or wrap, esp. used as bedding or worn when travelling."

Add Scandinavian influence

External links

• www.example.com