Images(4)

Cover, Furnishing

Object number2021.41.9

Made by Leonilde Frieri Ruberto

Date1934

OriginCairano, Italy

MediumFabric

Credit LineGift of Laura E. Ruberto

DescriptionRectangular white fabric bed cover. Left, bottom, and right margins have needlework decorations. Viewer's bottom left and bottom right corners have solid flowers shapes on a background of openwork crochet with branching linear and curvilinear openwork crochet shapes that run up the left and right sides. Bottom margin has alternating linear and floral openwork crochet patterns. Bottom margin at center has solid flower shapes flanking central pointed oval shape with openwork flowers all on arched background of openwork crochet with curvilinear arms branching to the left and right from bottom and open-weave lines branching to the left and right from the top. Open-weave border line inset along left, bottom, and right edges that separate the inset single-layer decorated area from the double-layered edges. Top edge is folded down and sewn in a method that might be a hanging sleeve; it is wider than the other three perimeters edges.DimensionsHeight x Width x Depth: 29.75 x 100.5 x 0.125 in. (75.6 x 255.3 x 0.3 cm)
Historical NotesPart of Leonilde Frieri Ruberto's wedding trousseau. Needlework was done with a combination of handwork and machine work. She made them in Cairano, Italy and brought them with her to Pittsburgh. She gifted this to her daughter-in-law, Anna. This type of piece was used to cover the cross-length of a bed, and fall on either side. It would be placed between the bottom edge of the pillows and cover the part of the sheet that would be “turned over”. As such, it was called “una reversina” (“the turned-over-piece”). Anna used this one specifically as a top curtain for a long window and you can see some of the effect of this use/alteration. Leonilde Frieri Ruberto was born in Cairano, Italy and lived through World War II while her husband was held as a POW in the U.K and the United States. Later in her life, after the earthquake in Irpinia one of her daughters asked her to write down her life story in a spiral notebook. Written in imperfect Italian in one continuous sentence, Ruberto describes her life in Cairano, raising children with a husband abroad (he immigrated to Venezuela after the war to earn money), and migrating to the neighborhood of Bloomfield in Pittsburgh. Ruberto’s granddaughter published her memoir in a bilingual edition called Such Is Life; the cover shows Leonilde doing needlework, as her family often remembers her doing. She was a skilled sewer and needleworker.

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