A Very Good Two Panel Boro Futon Cover Section: Rich Patching and Mending

late nineteenth, early twentieth century
62" x 24 1/2", 157.5 cm x 62 cm

For those looking to acquire a very good boro textile pay attention to this one.

It is two panels taken from a futon cover: it is interesting on both its sides.

The richly patched side would have been the proper "inside" of the futon cover which would not have been seen.

The less patched side would have faced out and here we see that side, too, was nicely put together from recycled, old cotton pieces.

The richly patched side is just that: it is composed of fragments and layers of old cloth, all seemingly fairly contemporary to one another, and the variety and amount of patches is impressive as is the directional placement of the patches: if you look carefully at the attached detail photos you will see this clearly, paying special attention to the diagonally-placed patch at the upper right hand corner.

All the small fragment patches are hand stitched to the surface and if you look carefully at the detail photographs here you will see some wonderful, eccentric stitching in many places on the panel.

Each of the two sides of this boro futon cover section is fascinating--and what makes this more desirable than others is not just its age but its quantity of patches and its very good, hand woven indigo dyed cottons.

It is, by and large, lacking in stains or areas of loss, another plus when considering a boro textile.

Very recommended.