10 Antique Cotton Pillowcases — Crochet, Whitework & Monogram — Nantucket Estate, C. 1930s

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A Nantucket house sale. Spring, this year. The kind of estate where the linen closet is its own argument for … Read more A Nantucket house sale. Spring, this year. The kind of estate where the linen closet is its own argument for a certain way of living.
These five pairs of antique cotton pillowcases came out of that house together, and they belong together still — a small archive of early-twentieth-century needlework, each pair a different answer to the same question of how much beauty a pillowcase requires. The answer, apparently, was: considerable.
One pair carries wide crocheted inset panels worked in an open grid — serious handwork, the kind that takes weeks. Another is trimmed with a deep scalloped crochet border in a chevron-and-arch pattern, cream against white, generous enough to spill across a pillow and announce itself. A third pair features a running hemstitch border, minimal and precise, for those who prefer their ornament quiet. Two pairs are monogrammed — one in the bold Old English cipher style of the 1930s linen houses, one in a lighter embroidered hand — because someone in this household understood that initialing your linens was not vanity but commitment. And the fifth pair is a tour de force: dense whitework embroidery in a scrolling botanical pattern, dotted satin stitch and drawn-thread borders, scalloped edge — the kind of piece that gets packed carefully and brought out for guests.
All white. All cotton. Very good condition throughout — some light age-softening in the cloth, as you would expect and want. Sizes range from 20" × 30" to 20" × 33".
Five pairs is a guest room that takes itself seriously. Or a summer house bedroom that knows exactly what it's doing.
Details

Collection of 5 pairs (10 pieces total) | Antique cotton | c. 1930s | Hand crocheted, hemstitched, and embroidered details | White | Two pairs monogrammed | Sizes 20"×30" to 20"×33" | Very good vintage condition | Nantucket estate collection See less