Antiques: Staying warm with pendleton

When we first looked at adding vintage blankets to our mix at the gallery, it seemed like a loopy idea. After all, we are in the desert. Why would anyone buy blankets when it was 120 degrees outside? As it turns out, our customers buy blankets every day of the year and it has become one of our bestselling categories. And if there’s a single name associated with blankets that people recognize, it is Pendleton. For more than 100 years, Pendleton has been the great American blanket and remains so today. So, curl up on your sofa with one and read on.

The company’s roots date back to the Civil War when British immigrant Thomas Kay landed in Oregon in 1863. He was an accomplished weaver and taught his family the trade. With its cool weather and plentiful grazing, the region was already a hub for sheep farming and it only made sense that scouring facilities and railroad spurs were established nearby to handle the large quantities of wool that resulted. Nonetheless, in the late 19th century increasing tariffs on shipping wool made such businesses unprofitable, and by century’s turn the area’s wool trade was struggling.