 | At Left: Wide view of front-right side of loom. Note the antique wought-iron candle holder balanced on the overhead support projection. The candle holder was acquired from a different source than the loom, but makes an appropriate accessory. At Right: Detail view of rocker. The rockers are free-standing, and are positioned on the loom base within the confines of the loom frame. The current owners of the loom are avid antique collectors. They wanted to add a loom to their collection so when, in the 1970s, the husband saw this loom while conducting business on a fram near Dahlonega, Georgia, he acquired it in a trade -- at the cost of a cow and a calf. The previous owners had no information on the origin of the loom, which they discovered in the barn after purchasing the farm. |
| The details of the carved overhead support system and beater cap, plus the shape and balance of the rockers, suggest the loom was built by a skilled craftsman. The couple was told by an Atlanta weaver that it was a "Cradle Rock Loom," and the builder might possibly have been Moravian -- that supposition was based on the fact that Dahlonega is located not far from the site of an old Moravian mission settlement (Cherokee, GA) noted for its skillful craftsmen. This loom was one of three looms included in a study done by Rita Adrosko, Curator Emeritus of the Textile Collection of the Smithsonian Institution, in 1980. | |
