Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates is pleased to announce its second annual Textiles and Sewing Auction to be held Saturday, July 15. Offerings will include 19th- and 20th-century quilts; Shenandoah Valley overshot coverlets as well as Pennsylvania and New York jacquard coverlets; homespun blankets and other bedcovers; 18th- and 19th-century samplers; spinning and weaving implements, including wool wheels, flax wheels, tape looms, and flax breaks; Victorian and designer clothing; sewing tools and accessories, including thimbles and buttons; and more. 
The sale will feature a large consignment of over 50 show towels from the Allentown Art Museum to benefit future acquisitions for the museum’s textile collection. Show towels were used by young, often Pennsylvania German women to practice their sewing skills, create a decorative item to display in their household, or gift to a new bride. A show towel in the sale from a Virginia museum has the name Simon John Wertz, the date 1843, and has a Franklin County, Pa., attribution. Though not unusual or rare in the period, it is not often that surviving textiles display male names.
The sale will also feature clothing made by mid-century designer Norman Norell and other designer and vintage clothing. Norell worked as a designer in New York from 1922 until his death in 1972. He is most well-known for his work from the 1940s-60s, when the consigned items are from. The consigner for the Norell clothing is a relative of a model for Norell.
“We are very pleased with the broad diversity of objects in this auction ranging from 18th-century samplers to mid-20th century designer clothing. We are especially honored to have been chosen by the Allentown Art Museum to handle the sale of their deaccessioned objects. The museum has one of the top collections of show towels and other textiles in the country and has been working diligently to identify duplicate and overlapping material in the collection,” said company president Jeffrey S. Evans.
The complete auction catalog is set to be posted online around July 5.
For further information, call 504-434-3939 or visit www.jeffreysevans.com.