Southern Counterpanes were produced in America from 1800 – 1900. They can be defined as handwoven white on white cotton bedcovers with one or more weaving structures that provide relief. This distinguishes them from other handwoven white bedcovers such as weft loop, stuffed, Bolton, and Marseilles. Unlike coverlets, Southern Counterpanes do not include overshot, summer and winter or Beiderwand weave structures with a few exceptions.
Evidence of the importance of counterpanes can be found in the number of weaving drafts found in archives. Museums, especially small museums, more often have the textile than the weaving drafts whereas larger museums often have a mix of drafts and textiles. When only drafts are found, as in historic drafts generally, only the threading is given. The modern weaver must determine tie up and treadling. Without the textile matched to the draft, it is not possible to determine if the textile produced matches the draft. There are exceptions where weavers have worked out the draft from the textile including Bargmann, Benson and Redford, Brown and Schillo, and Jemian.
My counterpane research includes work with 14 museums across six states (Alabama, Kentucky, North Carolina, Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas) and have consulted with or acquired drafts from private collections in Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee. In addition, I have drafts and images from North American Museum of American Coverlets and images of textiles from several locations in Georgia and South Carolina through cooperative exchange with others interested in counterpanes.
About Patricia:
Pat Donald has been interested in counterpane drafts since 2006 and saw her first counterpane from the late 1800s in 2008. Pat belongs to the Chattahoochee Handweavers Guild, Prince George Fiber Arts Guild and the Seattle Weavers Guild. She also is a member of the ANGW historical weaving study group as well as the Early American Coverlets and Counterpane, Early Weaving Books and Manuscripts and the Old Fashioned Way study groups of Complex Weaver’s. She has taught weaving workshops and given lectures on historic weaving drafts in four states. In Spring 2022, her article on Southern Counterpanes was published in Shuttle Spindle & Dyepot. Pat’s submission was accepted to Complex Weaver’s 40th Anniversary Book: Eight Shafts: Beyond the Beginning: Personal Approaches to Design. She will be presenting aspects of counterpanes at the Weaving History Conference this October.