Crochet at Colonial Williamsburg

Friday, August 24, 2007
There is a very strong argument that crochet did not exist before about 18001 so you don't see crocheted items at Colonial Williamsburg. However, at Basset Hall, which was a home for John D. Rockefeller Jr. and his wife beginning in 1936 (and is now a part of Colonial Williamsburg,) I found two crocheted pieces. One elaborate and another extremely simple.

The picture above is a crocheted bed covering decorating one of the guest bedrooms and below are close-ups of the two motifs.


If anyone knows the history of this bedspread or information about the pattern I'd love to hear about it.

Update 10/9/19

I Finally found the pattern!

The name of the pattern is Pinwheel Bedspead No. 423 and it was published in the book Bucilla Hand Crocheted Colonial Bedspreads. The book has a copyright year of 1932 which fits right in with the time that the Rockefellers moved into Basset Hall.


The last room we toured at the Basset House was the kitchen and my eye caught this as we were leaving -- a crocheted dishcloth! It looks like worsted weight cotton thread and rows of single crochet (but it looks a little different than that -- any ideas?)



1Crochet and its Origins -- FAQ


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Joyce, I'd love to see a picture of this dishcloth unfolded. I suspect that the reason there are holes is because early crocheters only had wooden hooks. And these were handcrafted and large. I can remember my grandmother (your great-grandmother) crocheting throw rugs using rug yarn and wooden hooks. During World War II, metal hooks weren't available and plastic hadn't hit the market yet and Grandma didn't have a large enough hook for the rugs. Grandpa got so tired of watching Grandma break the tips off hooks that he took a steel rod and fashioned her a crochet hook large enough for rugs. At one time I had this hook, but am not sure what I did with it. Loved your blogs. Keep them up. Love from your Mom

Anonymous said...

I've been reading about an earlier technique called naalebinding where they pulled the thread all the way through the loops (so the threads had to be short). Might the cloth had been made like that? We are going to Williamsburg soon, curious if this cloth will still be on the sink. Lol

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