William Craig; coverlet; Figured and Fancy; double-cloth; 1850; Indiana

William Craig, Sr. (1800-1880) wove this rust, white and blue, double-cloth coverlet. The centerfield design is composed of floral and foliate carpet medallions. There are borders along three sides. The two side borders feature vertically-oriented flowering urns. The lower border features pairs of confronted birds, possibly doves, perched on flowers. Between those pairs of birds is an Asian, Chinoiserie or Ottoman-style domed building underneath what appears to be a Mediterranean castle. The corner blocks are curiously mosques topped with onion domes and crescent moons. William Craig is know to have used this cornerblock trademark. The date 1850 appears in the two lower corners. There is fringe along the lower border. This coverlet belonged to the grandmother of the donor, Jane Russell of Clinton County, Indiana.

The Craig Family weavers consist of Scottish-born, William Craig, Sr. (1800-1880), Scottish-born cousin, James Craig (1819-1896), William Craig, Jr. (1824-1880), and James Craig (1823-1889) make up the two generations of weavers who intermarried with other Scottish immigrant weaving families, dominating the coverlet market in Floyd, Decatur, and Washington counties in Indiana. It is almost certain that their regional influence extended into Western Kentucky as well. The Craigs were prodigious weavers and entrepreneurs and the number of extant coverlets attest to this fact.

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