Coverlet by Adam D. Knirim (circa 1830 - after 1883), 1868. Dixon, Lee County, approximately 77 by 87 inches.

 

Illinois Jacquard Coverlets and Weavers By Kristan H. McKinsey and Nancy Iona Glick with Katherine H. Malumby

PEORIA, ILL. - The Lakeview Museum of Arts and Sciences in Peoria is celebrating the completion of a 20 year research and collecting project, "Illinois Jacquard Coverlets and Weavers: End of a Legacy," which runs April 24 to August 1, exhibiting 47 examples drawn from private and public collections including the Lakeview Museum. The range of work by the 18 known weavers will be on display. The museum's project resulted in the identification of 126 Illinois Jacquard coverlets.

Visitors to the exhibit will be able to examine regional design differences, compare weaving techniques, view a few surviving Jacquard attachment parts and raw dye materials. The exhibit is the first ever devoted exclusively to Illinois Jacquard coverlets, and offers a unique opportunity to compare the works of the 18 weavers known to have worked in Illinois between 1841 and 1871. Biographical information on the weavers, information on their careers and the known provenances of the coverlets is included.

Coverlets are Nineteenth Century hand-woven textiles with roots in Europe. Providing decoration and warmth, they display the weaver's skill and have great aesthetic appeal to collectors today. Most household weavers, usually women, with a four-harness loom could create simple, but visually exciting geometric overshot coverlets. Complex, figural designs were more difficult to produce on the same loom, requiring a loom boy to sit at the rear of the big wooden loom frame to lift and lower warp yarns according to the desired pattern.

That changed in 1806 when Joseph Marie Jacquard of France invented a mechanical attachment to take the place of the loom boy. The mechanisms could be attached to most looms. A series of punched cards much like Twentieth Century IBM computer cards guided the raising and lowering of the warp threads, forming complex designs.

Repeated motifs could be endlessly varied and recombined. Floral designs, birds, simple buildings, and stars are common, with a central section usually bordered on the sides and bottom. Many Jacquard coverlet weavers signed and dated their textiles on the decorative corner blocks at the bottom corners, sometimes including the client for whom the coverlet was woven.

The Jacquard attachment was introduced into the United States in the early 1820s, probably by one of the many German, English and French hand weavers suffering displacement in their native countries by the increasing mechanization of the Industrial Revolution.

Weavers who immigrated to America tended to settle in areas with populations of their own ethnic group and near sources of good quality wool. Some of these professional male weavers brought with them some type of Jacquard attachment or at least the experience to use one. Some developed their own devices based on Jacquard's idea and patented them in this country.

The earliest American Jacquard coverlets were woven in New York and Pennsylvania in the late 1820s. As weavers saturated the market in the Eastern states, and as mechanization started to move weaving into a factory setting, many weavers moved westward into Ohio and Indiana, and eventually to Illinois, looking for new markets as well as farmland.

Virtually no professional weavers were producing fancy goods in Illinois, but raw wool and commercially spun yarns as well as natural and synthetic dyestuffs needed for weaving could easily be obtained throughout the state. The weavers settled in or near agrarian communities among people of shared backgrounds and familiar with folk motifs and designs used in coverlets, primarily those from Germany, France and England.

The weavers made lasting contributions to the communities in which they settled, opening businesses and promoting weaving. Perhaps most importantly, they brought a touch of color and technical design to an expanding Nineteenth Century population on the Western frontier.

Eighteen weavers produced figured and fancy coverlets in Illinois from 1841 until after 1871. Most, if not all, were working on looms with Jacquard attachments. All but one were of Germanic background and many were recent immigrants to the United States. They included Lorenz Arnold from Baldenheim, France; August Braten, George Gauss, Gottlieb Hohulin, Adam D. Knierim, John Redick, and John P. Seewald from Germany; and Christian Wagner from Asch, Austria. Gauss, Redick and Seewald worked briefly in other states prior to moving to Illinois. Others left homes - Christian Fasig, Samuel Meily, and Jeremiah M. Sayler - and established careers - William M. Fasig, John P. Heifner, Charles Meily, and Phillip Rassweiler - in Pennsylvania or Ohio. Little or nothing is known about the remaining three weavers: Durr, Charles Herman and T. Hunkemiller.

At least 12 of the weavers were skilled when they arrived in Illinois. At least three trained with one of the other weavers. Gauss arrived in this country as a carpet weaver. Hohulin arrived fully trained as a weaver and probably familiar with coverlets and Jacquard attachments. Wagner was already a weaver when he docked at the port of Philadelphia in July, 1842. Seewald probably apprenticed himself to a weaver in Philadelphia soon after he arrived from Germany. The designs of Arnold's extant coverlets suggest that he trained in France. The Fasigs and the Meilys started weaving under the tutelage of family members in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Rassweiler, William Fasig, Charles Meily, Heifner, and Redick wove, signed and dated Jacquard coverlets in Pennsylvania and/or Ohio prior to their Illinois careers. Hunkemiller and Knierim may have also. Braten, Durr, Herman and Sayler apparently trained with another coverlet weaver in Illinois.

Illinois represents the most western production area of these fancy and figured coverlets in America. Only a very small number of coverlets were woven in Missouri, Iowa and Kansas. The earliest dated, surviving coverlet from Illinois was woven in 1841 by Seewald in St Clair County, near the Mississippi River and St Louis, Missouri. Coverlets by two other weavers, Gauss and Durr, survive from that area, woven in the late 1840s, about the time Seewald stopped weaving. The majority of Illinois examples date from the 1850s. There was a small revival by three weavers in the late 1860s and 1870s.

The second greatest concentration of coverlet weavers occurred in central Illinois, centered around Peoria County, where six of the weavers were active between 1846 and about 1860, producing 41 of the 126 known surviving coverlets. The highest concentration, at the height of Jacquard coverlet production in Illinois, took place in the eastern counties of Champaign, Clark, Crawford and Richland between 1850 and 1861.

Only two fancy bed covers survive from southern Illinois. Fourteen remain from the north section of the state, all woven between 1855 and at least 1870. Some design variations can be attributed to geographic differences, others to individual customer or weaver preferences.

The patterns and motifs used by Jacquard weavers were derived from well-known folk traditions of Western Europe. The designs of most Illinois coverlets can be traced back to Ohio and Pennsylvania coverlets. The center field patterns were either a large, repeated symmetrical motif (on two-piece one) or a centered medallion (on single width coverlets). Floral motifs appeared most frequently, in the Four Lilies and Sunburst, Four Roses, Octagonal Four Roses, Four Leaves and Four Acorns, and Four Bellflowers patterns; star and sunburst designs were also common.

Illinois Jacquard coverlets had borders along each side and the bottom. Popular traditional Germanic motifs include the distelfink (thistle finch), and Grapevine. Wagner's 1848 coverlet is the single instance of an architectural border in this study. Other borders used infrequently include a standing eagle (Christian Fasig and Wagner with Braten) and Scalloped Vine and Flower (William Fasig). Heifner's two rows of octagonal swirls alternating with two rows of stars is an unusual border, as is the Wilted Tulips that Gauss often used.

A corner block or name line identifies the weaver, his location, usually the year of production, and occasionally the name of the customer or a partner in the coverlet business. This element is placed in the corners at the ends of the bottom border or along the lower edge of the bottom border. Corner blocks with the weaver's name and date of manufacture were most common. William and Christian Fasig were the only Illinois weavers to include an image, a flowerpot cartouches, with words. Heifner placed a single cartouche at the end of one side border, instead of at both ends of the bottom border. Hohulin used a bird cartouche in his corner blocks, very much in the coverlet weaving tradition of Indiana and New York weavers of British and Scottish extraction. Arnold used a name line along the bottom edge of the coverlet that included his name, location, date, and sometimes his customer's name. Neither Charles Meily nor Gauss dated their Illinois coverlets. Only six extant coverlets have a customer's name woven into the coverlet.

Wagner was the only Illinois weaver to advertise that he dyed wool. Perhaps some of the others did, too. Clients who supplied the wool may have brought it already dyed or the weaver could send it out to one of the dyers who worked in the larger communities, including Peoria, Dixon, Belleville and the bordering cities of St Louis, Mo., and Terre Haute, Ind. So-called natural dyes or those appearing in plant materials like onion skins, butternut and walnut hulls, and Osage Orange inner bark were used by the average household to add color to handspun wool and woolen fabric. In the mid-1840s, dyes such as madder, cochineal, and indigo were commercially available in local dry goods establishments.

All of the coverlets in this study are Tied Beiderwand, typical for weavers of German and Austrian descent and those weaving coverlets for customers of those ethnic backgrounds. This structure has a distinctive corded look and was both cheaper and easier to weave than double-weave coverlets.

Coverlet weaving could be a lucrative occupation, especially if combined with other types of weaving. Several coverlet weavers used the same loom and attachment to produce carpets, very likely ingrain carpeting. These men had competition from others who wove only carpets. Indeed, many of them turned to additional occupations, such as farming, to support their families. Many weavers eventually gave up their looms entirely to focus their energy on farming or to take up a new career altogether. Braten, Sayler and Seewald quickly accumulated large holdings of farmland. Arnold became a carpenter, Christian Fasig purchased a part ownership in a grist mill. William Fasig worked as a bricklayer most of his life in Illinois. After a decade of farming, he moved to town and opened a grocery business. Seewald operated a vineyard and made wine, farmed, raised livestock and manufactured brooms. Gauss parlayed his knowledge of wool into a successful and respected dry goods business dealing heavily in wool, yarn and woolen goods. Wagner continued dyeing after he stopped weaving and worked as a laborer.

The size and weight of the looms and the attachments meant that weavers rarely worked as itinerant craftsmen, rather they settled into a community and raised their families. Many wove during the winter months, usually on commission. Unfortunately, records do not survive to indicate exactly how many coverlets any one weaver produced. For individual Illinois Jacquard weavers, the number of documented surviving coverlets ranges from two to 24.

Weavers, like other businessmen in an established and accepted trade, wanted to inform the public of the services they had to offer. City directories, when they existed, could be a valuable place for a business to advertise. Yet the names of only three Illinois Jacquard coverlet weavers appeared in the business directories of their communities: Gauss, Knierim, and Wagner. Perhaps a listing was too expensive or individual weavers already had all the business they wanted; several weavers lived in communities that never had city or business directories (even in the 1990s, communities with less than 10,000 residents do not normally have city directories).

Five Illinois weavers advertised coverlet weaving briefly in local newspapers, but never for longer than a six month period at one time. Information on several of the weavers comes from federal and state census records, agricultural census records or from business directories. The weavers who listed in statewide or national business directories treated their craft as a business and their primary source of income. Those who advertised only locally (or apparently not at all) were using weaving to earn secondary or supplementary income, or a means to a specific fiscal goal.

Two weavers - Gauss and Rassweiler - registered with R.G. Dun & Company for regularly updated credit reports on their businesses. The firm listed Gauss from 1859 until his death in 1888, covering his careers as weaver and dry goods store operator. Interestingly, credit ratings exist for Rassweiler's from 1872 to 1889, a period for which no signed or dated Jacquard coverlets by him survive. The Civil War cut Heifner's life and career short before Dun & Company started their ledgers.

Another way of marketing coverlets would have been by word of mouth. Most all of the Illinois weavers sold their wares from one principal location, usually their home or workplace. A major exception was a local Cedarville man, turned peddler in the winter months, who sold Rassweiler's coverlets door to door on speculation.

The Lakeview Museum of Arts and Sciences is hosting a one-day symposium on April 24 on the history of Jacquard coverlet weaving in Illinois. The Colonial Coverlet Guild of America is sponsoring a lecture by Rabbit Goody, coverlet expert, on dating coverlets. Other sessions include a panel of collectors, lectures on the care of historic textiles, coverlet weave structure, and weaving with a Jacquard attachment. There will be a tour of the exhibit by the primary researchers, Nancy I. Glick and Katherine H. Molumby and a dye demonstration.

A 78-page book with color illustrations complements the exhibit. Mr Glick, the folk art collector who initiated the museum's collection and the research of Illinois Jacquard coverlets, wrote the foreword on the background of this project; Nancy Iona Glick, weaver and genealogist, prepared a critical essay on the history of coverlet weaving in Illinois; Katherine H. Molumby, historian, wrote biographies of the 18 known weavers. The book ends with a catalogue section illustrating and describing the 126 known Illinois Jacquard coverlets.

This comprehensive publication is the first devoted to Illinois coverlets and is expected to be the authoritative study for years to come. Illinois Jacquard Coverlets and Weavers: End of a Legacy, is available for $25 plus $3 shipping and handling. The Lakeview Museum of Arts and Sciences is at 1125 Westlake Avenue, telephone 309/686-7000.