Technical notes and description: Cotton warp and wool weft tied Biederwand weave cloth. This coverlet, striped in indigo, red, brass, and white, is patterned by a narrow upended square and double-tier tassel exterior border, a scrolling vine foot border, and a floral vine side border. The central ground has four by five rows of medallion motifs of stylized compass point tuliplike flowers divided by leaf and blossom blocks. The overall impression of the ground motif is one of substance, as it is counterpointed by the horizontal lines

Related examples: Denver Art Museum (acc. no. A-2029), identical patterns for center and borders, woven in 1837 by John Mellinger of Pennsylvania; Dayton Art Institute (acc. no. 88.121), for similar center, dated 1848.

Book excerpt: David B. Warren, Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff. American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.