Rug pattern (Hooked rug pattern)

Description

This hooked rug pattern, titled “Cabin Sail Boat,” was designed by rug maker and pattern designer Charlotte K. Stratton in the 1950s. The pattern depicts a small boat at sea, sails raised, with a single large cloud in the sky overhead. It is printed in black ink on a piece of undyed, plain-woven burlap. A tag stapled to the back of the pattern indicates that the object itself was manufactured and sold by Ruth J. Davis and Yankee Peddler Hooked Rug Studio of Trumbull, Connecticut. Hooked rugs are created by pulling loops of yarn, often wool, through the weave of a backing cloth using a hooking tool. The loops are pulled taught on the back of the rug, and piled and then clipped on the front side to create a design. In the second half of the 19th century, companies like E. S. Frost & Co. began selling rug hooking patterns, which provided outlines of pre-made designs printed directly onto the backing cloth. This object is one of a large group transferred to Winterthur from the American Textile History Museum when it closed in 2017.