Textile fragment, embroidered (Textile sample)

Description

Martha Sigourney Cobb, of Dedham, Massachusetts, worked this silk petticoat panel sometime in the second half of the 19th century. The petticoat has a pattern of small decorative holes made to represent leaves and flowers, four large, embroidered flowers in the center, and smaller floral designs embroidered on the sides. Martha Cobb was the daughter-in-law of Jonathan Holmes Cobb, who was active in ventures to raise silkworms and manufacture silk in Massachusetts during the early 1800s. J. H. Cobb retired from the silk industry after the factory he co-founded, the New England Silk Company, burned down in 1845, but this petticoat is presumably made from silk produced at the factory before it closed. This object is one of a large group transferred to Winterthur from the American Textile History Museum when it closed in 2017. The Winterthur Library also received a significant amount of material from ATHM, including the related J. H. Cobb Papers collection.