Baby Blocks Coverlet or Table Cover

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Maker:
Briggs, Catherine Issel (Jarvis)
Date:
1890 - 1899

Velvet and silk multi-coloured patchwork coverlet with baby blocks design surrounded by a border of crazy patchwork. The coverlet has elaborate silk fringing around the edge.

This coverlet was made by Catherine Issell Briggs (Jarvis). She was born in Devonshire in 1856 and apprenticed at the age of 14 to a dressmaker. Catherine married Vernon John Briggs in Chelsea in 1881 and then worked with her husband, using her sewing skills in their upholstery and home furnishing business. The couple had 7 children – 5 girls and 2 boys, and this coverlet was probably made whilst the children were growing up. Due to her line of work, Catherine had plenty of spare scraps of material, and the bobble fringing was given to her by one of the suppliers they dealt with called The Holdsworth Brothers.

198cm x 221cm

Baby Blocks Coverlet or Table Cover