Handloom placemat,wedding gift to Francis Wilder & Virginia Hunt, Buckland, Mass., 1949
Handloom placemat,wedding gift to Francis Wilder & Virginia Hunt, Buckland, Mass., 1949
Item Information
Title:
Handloom placemat,wedding gift to Francis Wilder & Virginia Hunt, Buckland, Mass., 1949
Description:
Green, brown, and beige hand-woven cotton table linen with fringe measures 11 inches by 14-1/2 inches and was made on handlooms in Buckland, Mass. by Miss Eleanor W. Clark (1902-1958) and Mrs. Hattie Bertha (Sanderson) Wilder (1867-1958). With an overshot pattern in a fine weave, the piece was a gift to Francis Wilder and Virginia Hunt on 19 March 1949, their wedding day. Miss Clark and Mrs. Wilder were cousins of the bride and groom's families.Eleanor Clark and her Aunt Hattie Wilder lived together at the Wilder Homestead in Buckland, Mass. in the early 1940's not long after the elder Hattie's husband died. At the homestead there were antique looms, spinning wheels, and yarn winders. Both Hattie, known to most everyone as Aunt Bertha, and Eleanor soon discovered a love and talent for pattern design and weaving on treadle looms. In 1944, Eleanor was appointed Postmaster of the Buckland Center Post Office, which was housed in a building she owned on Upper Street. The building had an apartment that Miss Clark converted into a two-room studio for teaching weaving. She gave lessons in setting up the loom and designing patterns for projects. Other weavers brought their looms and set them up to work together. The group became known as The Buckland Weavers. Eleanor also took on the task of teaching weaving to a group of 4-H girls, known as the Buckland Busy Bees. There were seven or eight girls aged ten to sixteen who learned how to set up a loom, work a pattern, and weave a piece to proudly take home.
