Jacquard Coverlet

Prior to the 19th century, textile designs were worked out on grid paper and carefully executed by a weaver and an assistant. The so-called “Jacquard loom,” invented by French weaver Joseph Marie Jacquard in 1804, made it possible to automate the patterning of the weave through the use of punched cards and corresponding mechanisms on the loom that manipulated the weft fibers to create the desired patterns. Born in Glasgow, Scotland, Samuel Balantyne, like many Scottish and English weavers who moved to America in the mid-19th century, probably served a seven-year apprenticeship under a master weaver before striking out on his own. The complex design of this coverlet was made possible by the punched card system and related loom mechanisms developed by Jacquard. Its bold and highly stylized patterns and its alternating floral and pictorial borders are distinctive characteristics of Balantyne’s work.