Images(3)

Embroidered Pocketbook

Period1774

MediumCrewel wool, linen, twill tape, and heavy paper

DimensionsClosed: 5.5 × 8.5 in. (14 × 21.6 cm)

ClassificationsNeedlework

Credit LineMuseum purchase with funds provided by Mr. and Mrs. C. D. Halsey in memory of Frederick Frelinghuysen, 1969

Object number1995.522

DescriptionA double pocketbook using Irish stitch in a diamond within diamond design, in shades of olive green and pink with jagged edge lozenges on linen canvas. It is marked "Isaac Coats" and "I 1774 C" in cross stitched bands worked at the interior edges. The binding consists of dark olive green twill woven linen tape. The interior of the pocketbook is made of a light olive green linen, with two compartments and folded gussets at each side. Compartments and outer case are reinforced with heavy paper interlining.
Curatorial RemarksOwner Isaac Coats may have received this large and colorful pocketbook from his wife or a loving daughter. Pocketbooks reached the height of their popularity during the second half of the eighteenth century in America and were used by both men and women to carry letters, paper currency, and other personal papers.NotesIsaac Coats, although not specifically identified, may have lived in or around the Philadelphia area, where a number of Coats families settled. The Coats surname appears extensively in Pennsylvania Quaker records.

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