Practically Perfect

A comedy of errors in handwoven coverlets

It is a well-known concept that weavers in some cultures deliberately incorporate errors into their weaving process. To our knowledge, American coverlet weavers of the 19th century did not deliberately include errors in their work for cultural or spiritual reasons. But their works inevitably include many imperfections—some subtle, others less so—by virtue of being handmade. These imperfections never fail to delight visitors to the McCarl Gallery. They chuckle with sympathy at mismatched seams and loose threads. They light up with amusement when they notice spelling errors or backward letters in coverlet inscriptions. Everyone, it seems, can relate to a typo.

Making mistakes is a universal part of the human experience. Mistakes in woven coverlets highlight the humanity of coverlet weavers who lived two hundred years ago, and they also give us insight into how coverlets were made. From mismatched seams to skipped threads to ‘typos’ in the signatures, sometimes it’s the all-too-human errors that truly bring an artifact’s story to life. This exhibition lovingly celebrates the imperfections that reveal the maker’s hand, preserved in the fabric from his loom.

Due to the nature of the theme, the coverlets selected are even more than usually one-of-a-kind and not to be found within a single collection. Along with unique coverlets from the McCarl Gallery’s collections, this exhibition includes rarely-seen items on loan from private collections in Pennsylvania, New York, and Indiana.