Late 19th century duvet cover from the Swiss border - cotton check and hemp with nettle backing
This is an amazing piece, it comes from a small region just on the border with Switzerland, a part of France that was both Catholic and Protestant. The woman who sold me this explained that it was a duvet cover for down duvets, much needed in that very cold region of France, and that they were traditionally made in to indicate the religion of the owner. Red was Catholic, as this one is, and blue was Protestant, and if there was that very tricky thing, a mixed marriage, the duvet covers would be a red and blue check, which if I was a 19th century French Swiss housewife would alone justify me marrying out of my religion just to have stylish bedclothes!
So the front is already very beautiful, with its woven red and white checked flower design, but the back is equally beautiful. This is a hemp and nettle fabric - the dark streaks in the fabric indicate that nettle has been used here, which is very rare to find. Perhaps they ran out of hemp. Hemp was a peasant fabric but nettle was even more so - being free, but requiring a huge amount of labour to process.
This piece is therefore pretty rare, as well as just pretty. It is in excellent condition for its age. There are cotton tie tapes at the edge, some of these have snapped - but you could replace them and still use this for its original purpose. There is a little bit of colour cast from the red, but no visible staining.
It measures 139×183cm.
Please click on the photos to open them up full-sized.
To purchase, please contact me.
This is an amazing piece, it comes from a small region just on the border with Switzerland, a part of France that was both Catholic and Protestant. The woman who sold me this explained that it was a duvet cover for down duvets, much needed in that very cold region of France, and that they were traditionally made in to indicate the religion of the owner. Red was Catholic, as this one is, and blue was Protestant, and if there was that very tricky thing, a mixed marriage, the duvet covers would be a red and blue check, which if I was a 19th century French Swiss housewife would alone justify me marrying out of my religion just to have stylish bedclothes!
So the front is already very beautiful, with its woven red and white checked flower design, but the back is equally beautiful. This is a hemp and nettle fabric - the dark streaks in the fabric indicate that nettle has been used here, which is very rare to find. Perhaps they ran out of hemp. Hemp was a peasant fabric but nettle was even more so - being free, but requiring a huge amount of labour to process.
This piece is therefore pretty rare, as well as just pretty. It is in excellent condition for its age. There are cotton tie tapes at the edge, some of these have snapped - but you could replace them and still use this for its original purpose. There is a little bit of colour cast from the red, but no visible staining.
It measures 139×183cm.
Please click on the photos to open them up full-sized.
To purchase, please contact me.
This is an amazing piece, it comes from a small region just on the border with Switzerland, a part of France that was both Catholic and Protestant. The woman who sold me this explained that it was a duvet cover for down duvets, much needed in that very cold region of France, and that they were traditionally made in to indicate the religion of the owner. Red was Catholic, as this one is, and blue was Protestant, and if there was that very tricky thing, a mixed marriage, the duvet covers would be a red and blue check, which if I was a 19th century French Swiss housewife would alone justify me marrying out of my religion just to have stylish bedclothes!
So the front is already very beautiful, with its woven red and white checked flower design, but the back is equally beautiful. This is a hemp and nettle fabric - the dark streaks in the fabric indicate that nettle has been used here, which is very rare to find. Perhaps they ran out of hemp. Hemp was a peasant fabric but nettle was even more so - being free, but requiring a huge amount of labour to process.
This piece is therefore pretty rare, as well as just pretty. It is in excellent condition for its age. There are cotton tie tapes at the edge, some of these have snapped - but you could replace them and still use this for its original purpose. There is a little bit of colour cast from the red, but no visible staining.
It measures 139×183cm.
Please click on the photos to open them up full-sized.
To purchase, please contact me.