What would be the best way to liquidate a coverlet collection?

[REDLINEFAN70]

Greetings:

My mother has been collecting coverlets for the past 30 years and had decided it's time for them to go. For those of you who are not familiar withcoverlets I'll give you some brief details. Coverlets are made of wool and hand woven between roughly 1832 - 1855. Some of them are amazingly beautiful. They fall into a couple basic categories: overshots, double weaves and summer/winter. A lot of weavers wove their name and a date in the corner so there isabsolutely no doubt when and where they were made.

My mother has over sixty of them. 2/3rds of the signed ones are in excellent condition with the rest being of lesser quality. The question is what is thebest way to sell them? She doesn't want to take the time and trouble to sell them all on Ebay which would net her the most money. She would like to sellthem at a local auction and be done with it but I can see some big problems with this. Does anyone know of an auction house that specializes in this sort ofitem or does specialty auctions? I'm open for any ideas or suggestions so fire away. Thanks!

Lane

[twinny4]

Hi Lane. I've never heard of coverlets before so I know absolutely nothing about them but from whatyou've described I'd love to see a pic of some of them if you're able to take a few and post them here. I hope your mum is able to find a way tosell them (conveniently) and get the most for her money.


~Karen

[REDLINEFAN70]

Hi Karen:

I went on the internet and grabbed some pictures so you can see what I'm talking about. You can chase coverlets down just like you do Hot Wheels. Being acollector with a passion (I'm convinced that's an inherited gene) I've always enjoyed visitng with my Mom about her latest finds. I know she'ssuffered immensly over the years listening to me ramble...... Idon't think she realized how many of these she had bought over the years. My parents live in a fairly large stone house in Kansas that was built in maybe1875? I don't remember the exact year but it was a cool place to grow up. Evidently they are stashed all over the place. If you want to take a boringbedroom and give it instant character throw one of these on the bed. They're beautiful and have a lot of history behind them. Remember these are all handwoven on a loom. Enjoy the pics!

Lane











Nice close up showing the detail:

[sunburninaz]

Think of the stories those coverlets could tell if they were actually used as bedspreads (get your minds out of the gutter!) over 150 years ago - from theperson whose loving hands took the time and care to make them to the people they've kept warm, the families, the kids... Think of the family discussionsthey must have been privy to... The hard times, the good times, tears, laughter, broken hearts, celebrations...

If only a price could be put on that, I'd say your mother would be a rich woman! Wish her the best of luck with her sale.

Doug

[REDLINEFAN70]

Hi Doug:

Yes the history of coverlets is fascinating. They were generally used when company was in town and stored in a trunk the rest of the time. I know the onlytime I break out my only coverlet is when I have vistors. I've never had someone not comment on it! The weavers themselves were a fairly nomadic group.They would load up there looms and move from town to town setting up shop wherever they could find a customer. One of the most interesting facets of thishobby, to me anyway, is you can trace where the weavers lived based on the signed and dated corners on the coverlets. My Mom likes geneology so she reallyenjoys that aspect of the hobby. One photograph I saw that I'll never forget was an old Civil War picture. It had a picture of a recovering soldier in afield hospital with a coverlet wrapped around him. Neat stuff for sure!

Lane

[toysalot]

Depending on the price...I would be interested in one or two.

jhakes@socal.rr.com

[BlueWag66n]

I know nothing about those, but goingon what the ladies pay for quilts, I'd say combined with the historical value of those, they'd be worth a fortune. I'd venture a guess of $100seach if not more.

Andy

[NITROJOHNNY]

Lane,

Those bring back memories for me, my grandma collected a few yrs. back while she was with us.
Just like our toy cars, pics cannot do enough justice, in hand the weavings are all the more amazing.
I say you're foolish to just dump 'em, do some thoughful time & research, there will be buyers.

John

[rhuprect]

I would say that any live auction house specializing in antiques (not just old junk) would be able to pull top dollar if the sale was nationally advertised.One really nice auction house by me does well with collections like that. He advertises on auctionzip and gets buyers and bids from all over the country.