Featured Vintage hand loomed blanket

Thrift store find, I don't know much about textiles. Just had a gut feeling on this one. It is two panels sewn together down the middle. Anyone know the age? provenance? Any info or help is appreciated. Thanks.
Front and Back of blanket

 

Love it! My guess is you are right - hand loomed. BUT, I am not well versed enough in this area to be an expert!
Leslie

 

LOVE IT !!! ... Joy.

 

Hi Jaime, haven't seen you around for a while. Nice blanket.

 

Jaquard Quilt?

But wait for the experts.

 

My memory of "weaving" like this is from the 70's - called "homespun" at the time?

 

My great grandmother had a giant rug loom, kind of the size of an organ and popular in the midwest USA, early 1900's. Her rugs had a more coarse appearance with row upon row of thicker bands of cloth (sometimes bread wrappers!) and woven together with the thinner string. This looks quite delicate, very tightly woven and more intricate. Very nice!

 

I contacted a James Compton from Compton Galleries whose specialty is Native American blankets, he gave me quite a bit of info:

Hello Jaime,

Thank you for reaching out about your beautiful blanket. This is not a Native American blanket, but a hand woven early Eastern Seaboard blanket, likely dating from 1830 - 1860. While I'm not completely certain on the technique, I believe your blanket is considered a coverlet for a bed, and is referred to as an overshot woven on a jacquard loom. The looms were more narrow, so it took weaving two panels to make the size of blanket you have. The dyes are natural, the red likely being cochineal and the blue indigo. The white yarn is either cotton (used a bit later on) or linen (a sign that the blanket is likely on the earlier end of the date estimate) These blankets are not very rare, except yours is a particularly nice one in its composition and complexity. The value on these ranges from $200 to $800 on a retail basis. Here is a link to give you more information about this type of blanket:

https://comfortclothweaving.com/history-overshot-weaving/

Let me know if you have any other questions.

 

Hello! Yes, it has been a long while. I'm starting up business again, took a break for some time. Good to see you on here again.

 

That is so wonderful, thanks for letting us know.

 

Bread wrappers? The wire tie things, or the bags the bread came in?

 

Very nice coverlet. The ones with relatively simple patterns such as yours could be handwoven at home on a four-harness loom. Fancier ones with figural designs were woven on more sophisticated jacquard looms, which use a system of punched cards to control the pattern, and were more often done by professional weavers. It looks like yours has a linen warp (judging by the color), with wool weft, all handspun. The combination of fibers is sometimes referred to as linsey-woolsey.
http://www.coverletmuseum.org/coverlet.htm

 

Thank you so much for this information!

 

Lovely blanket! I recognized it right away as overshot as I worked in a facility that used jacquard looms to make this very item, only in much larger sizes. They made this type of coverlet in the same manner as 150 years ago; sold their products to visitors. Yours certainly has more of personal touch as it was made on a home loom. What do you plan to do with it?

 

She would use the entire plastic bread wrapper package, she would twist one a bit and then press it hard into the loom with her stick. Here are some pictures of the one I have that she made in the 60's.

 

My mother also made area rugs and chair seat pads with bread wrappers and the wrappers from carrots and potatoes.

 

What an interesting post! Thanks for sharing, and congrats Jamie on finding this cool piece and posting the follow up.