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Crewelwork bed cover, crewel wool on cotton and fustian, embroidered in red, blue, green, gray, and white. Originally made for bed hanging; later refashioned as quilted bed cover. Chinoiserie design; twining vines extending from rocky hillocks at lower edge; large and small floral and foliate motifs. Stitches include stem, long-and-short, Romanian, knotwork (coral, French, Colonial), carpet-work, eyelet (closed) and self-couching.
bed coverings
crewel wool
fustian
cotton (textile)
linen (material)
crewelwork (technique)
quilting
Chinoiserie
Jacobean
floral patterns
Quilt
Cherished Possessions:
According to family tradition, Captain Richard Fifield of Boston sent to England for the material for a full set of bed hangings, with the design already drawn on them, for his wife and daughter to embroider. Evidence of the pre-drawn design survives where the thread has worn away. The bed hangings became treasured family heirlooms, passed down through the generations until, sometime in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century, they were divided and reworked to create four bed coverings. The four bed coverings descended among family members. This one came to SPNEA in 2001, a gift of the heirs of the first Mary Fifield's great-great-great-great-grandson.
"Wrought about the year 1714/by Mrs. Mary Fifield assisted/by her daughter Mary, the mother/of Samuel Adams, later Governor/of Massachusetts./Copy of label in upper left corner/of back of spread. R. Hale-April 1957" (Inked on sewn-in label at lower left corner of verso.)
Adams, Samuel, 1722-1803
Fifield, Mary Thurston, 1667-
Adams, Mary Fifield, 1694-1748
Fifield, Mary Thurston, 1667- (Embroiderer)
Adams, Mary Fifield, 1694-1748 (Embroiderer)
Massachusetts
80 x 60 1/2 (HxW) (inches)
Gift of heirs of William Trowbridge Forbes
2001.274
ca. 1710 (Elder of known makers d. 1714.)
Boston (Suffolk county, Massachusetts)
Massachusetts (United States)
Boston (Suffolk county, Massachusetts)
Boston
Title Bed Curtain Accession Number 1964.5B
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