36 
House & Garden 
Yellow and white in a repeat con¬ 
ventional pattern. Spreads by courte¬ 
sy of C. M. Travers Co. 
Bedspread of green and yellow with 
grapevine border and center of con¬ 
ventional baskets and plants 
Deep purple, red and white with 
conventional flowers, baskets and 
animals decorate this spread 
The geometrical pattern in this 
spread is worked out in dark blue, 
yellow and dull red 
SPANISH BEDSPREADS in AMERICAN HOMES 
Their Decorative Value as Wall Hangings and 
Rugs—The Colors and Weaves of the Old Examples 
COSTEN FITZ-GIB BON 
Hung as a tapestry the Spanish bedspread has genuine decorative 
value. The colors here are blue, dark red and white 
employed to advantage when considerations oi 
cost, size, consistency or some other limitation 
precludes the possibility of having a tapestry. 
In size the bedspreads range from about 6' 
to 9 VC in length by a width of from 5' to H/z ■ 
Their body or ground is a coarse canvas through 
I N Spain, within the past two or three years, 
a great wave of appreciation has developed 
for the decorative qualities and possible uses 
of the old Spanish bedspreads of bright colored 
wool. This appreciation of a long familiar and 
long neglected article, in a new capacity, grew 
to such proportions that it en¬ 
couraged the active revival of 
the ancient craft of bedspread 
weaving—it had never alto¬ 
gether died out—in the little 
hill town of Albujarras, once 
the chief seat of the industry. 
It need scarcely be said that 
this somewhat sudden return 
of the brilliantly colored wool¬ 
en bedspread into popular 
favor did not contemplate its 
quondam use as a bed covering, 
although in many out of the 
way places it not infrequently 
still serves its former purpose. 
I'he spreads are so heavy that 
they well-nigh crush anyone 
lying under them and are im¬ 
possibly uncomfortable, to our 
way of thinking, but their 
weight and substantial texture 
well fit them for the decorative 
uses to which the modern 
Spaniards have put them and 
in which we are now follow¬ 
ing suit—as wall hangings, as 
rugs and, sometimes, as covers 
for large, heavy tables in halls. 
tiTtrm Uses and Sizes 
Our own present apprecia¬ 
tion of wall hangings is mainly 
due to the great interest awak¬ 
ened in tapestries in the last 
few years. The Spanish bed¬ 
spread cannot, of course, be 
deemed a rival of tapestries in 
elegance of design, color or 
texture, but it has, neverthe¬ 
less, its own appropriate func¬ 
tions to fulfill and can often be 
which are shot the strands of divers colored 
wools that form the face or pile and, inci¬ 
dentally, the design. The woolen strands of the 
weft are pulled up, at proper intervals to form 
the design, into tufts like large French knots. 
In the single colored spreads, the lower canvas 
ground, with the colored wool 
en threads running through it. 
is plainly visible. In the mul¬ 
ti-colored spreads the ground 
is completely hidden and a 
uniform surface of multi-col¬ 
ored tufts appears. 
Characteristic Colors 
The coloring is strong and 
vivid and without gradations 
of shading. From two to four 
or five colors are used. While 
the coloring is not always 
pleasant—for instance, in a 
composition consisting entirely 
of unmitigated reds and greens 
or of equally violent reds and 
yellows—the combinations are 
usually mellow and agreeable. 
The blues, both light and dark, 
are particularly good and the 
arrangements of blues, reds 
and whites or of blues and yel¬ 
lows are especially satisfactory. 
In the use of such combinations 
as pale green, mauve and bis¬ 
cuit, considerable delicacy is 
often displayed. The spreads 
of a single color, such as blue 
or black, are quiet in effect and 
especially suitable for rugs. 
While much of the coloring is 
intense and the contrasts vigor¬ 
ous, as in so many Spanish 
things, the deep, full texture 
absorbs the light and softens 
the ensemble so that it is in 
only a comparatively few cases 
that the aspect is at all garish. 
The devices used are con- 
(Continued on page 86) 
