Shaker Carriage Robe

Shaker Carriage Robe, wool carriage robe with three handles 8 1/2 in. long, lined with red wool plain weave, black, gray, and shaded red plain weave on the front, 72 in. wide, plain lining of two 30-in. panels sewn together, tied with red and black wool thread, front or top layer 32 E.P.I.; lining 40 E.P.I., plaid sequence: gray 4 1/2 in., black 1 1/16 in., orange-red 1 3/8 in., pink-red 1 1/4 in., red 1 1/8 in., wine 3/4 in., black 2 3/4 in., reverse of red block; center block of 36 in. of black woven with gray after squaring other color sequences by weaving plain weave, creating four blocks of intense color in the four corners of the robe; cloth label sewn to the inside edge "Shaker Village/June 1884/ N.H.," lg. 101, wd. 72 in. Exhibition: The Fullerton Museum, Palo Alto, California, in the summer of 1988. Note: Tag found in Erhart Muller's scrapbook reads "Shaker Woven Robe price $15.00." A similar robe is at Hancock Shaker Village from Canterbury, New Hampshire, circa 1880 and discussed and illustrated in Beverly Gordon Shaker Textile Arts (Hanover, New Hampshire: University Press of New England, 1980), pp. 87-90, color plate 4.