Vintage barkcloth, Waverly “Spring Frolic”

At the recent Adams, Mass. estate sale time capsule, I found some samples of this beautiful Waverly drapery fabric upstairs. The pattern is called “Spring Frolic” and the stash included all six colorways. The fabric is so gorgeous — and I would have trouble choosing one color over the other. I’ve scanned the samples in high-resolution (below) so that if you click on the images in the Gallery you can see all the slubbing — and the metallic gold.

This is Medium Grey.

French Grey.

Natural.

Peat Moss. This one may indeed be my favorite.

Sand.

Willow. This one’s easy on the eyes, too. Hey, my scanner seems to be doing better today. These colors are pretty true.

Here’s the tag on the back. So — this stuff is really called “rhino cloth,” not barkcloth. Oh, and this particular design is “Golden Glo Rhino Cloth,” ooh la la. I am deducing that ‘rhino cloth’ comes from the fact that this fabric has little slubby bumps all over it.  I will have to go compare it to what I call my ‘barkcloth’ drapes upstairs. This rhino cloth is what I would describe as medium weight – more suitable to draperies than to upholstery.

The tag indicates that Waverly also made Bonded Rhino Cloth, and Bonded Las Vegas Cloth.  I am presuming the terms “rhino cloth” and “Las Vegas cloth” are general to the period, rather than proprietary to Waverly. Tomorrow: I will show you my sample of Las Vegas Cloth! We will all be so smart, we will be able to impress (errr?) our friends, family and cocktail party acquaintances (or, each other) by being able to distinguish among vintage barkcloth, rhino cloth and Las Vegas cloth! 🙂

Here is the Gallery. Click on any image a few times to get it to enlarge quite substantially. Use your back button to return to the main post.