Another whole cloth quilt. It is huge, It is made from stripes of bright red silk. Possibly made in the late 18th c. in England – where silk was much readier available. Family lore is that Increase Sumner took his third oath of office as governor of Massachusetts while lying ill under this quilt. So not sure how long he served before dying. The quilt stayed in the family, and once again, they took extremely good care of it.
Not a great photo, but once again, the quilting here is incredible. You really need to go in person and see these quilts. The work of their hands – this is one of the big takeaways for me.
American Quilts have always been about ‘cultural appropriation’ I mean using what is at hand and enjoying combining items from other cultures – that used to be a good thing. This beauty is made in India for the European market. India perfected the block printing technique and quickly came to realize that Europeans like different designs, such as flowers and tree of life. So like good businessmen, that is what they created and sold. Of course, tariff’s raise their ugly head, wool merchants in England didn’t like the competitions of Indian cotton. So many of these were sold in the former colonies where the tariffs didn’t exist. What is lovely here is that someone then quilted this with the requisite batting and backing. I remember as the child, the simple Indian bed spreads – nice, but nothing like the color and workmanship here.
We now move on from whole cloth to the quilt block – what becomes the standard building block of what most people think of as an American Quilt. Block have names, this one is Carolina Lily and to make it look right – the block is on point – which also makes for a really nice overall design. The red is a new red, Turkey red and it is as colorfast as red can be. The red and the border print probably came from France, where textile production was at it’s apex. In later years, American plants would acquire the roller prints as well well – but since this was made in the early 19th – the fabric was probably French.
I looked closely at the quilted feather in the green blocks – since I recently quilted some myself on my basket quilt. Nice Job! There is combination piecing and appliqué here as well.
Speaking of Appliqué – one of the best examples of a Baltimore Album that I have seen. Once again, mostly imported fabrics. Although the label says that slaves may have had a hand in making this type of quilt – I am so over that! Weathly women didn’t do the house work – what they did was needle work! Same is true today – most quilters have leisure time and money to buy the fabric. Give these women their due!
Love the hunting scene, this is a first for me on a Baltimore album. Also, note the wonderful, very accurate quilting – I wonder if each line was marked. Because from experience I can tell you, if you base your lines on the one before – they get very wanky very quickly. I know, it’s hard to see the details in the fabric, these are exquisite. Some of the flowers are cut straight from the fabric – what used to be called :Broderie Perse. Today we call it fussy cutting. This is something only a rich person can do – this isn’t about saving scraps, although I’m sure some leftovers from dress making made it in here.
Lovely border print, and amazing feather quilting. Also, notice how tight the stipple quilting is, this ensures that the feathers stand out from the background. A true masterpiece.
Now, the first quilt that is showing its age. So this one must have been used a lot. It was on a twin size bed and has the cut outs for the poster bed. The quilt is somewhat fades, the green was probably much closer to the green in the Carolina Lily. The orange could very easily have been red. Look at the scalloped edge! This is a way of making the quilt even more decorative than a simple straight edge.
Here are two of the family children. The quilt is dated from 1830 simply because it is believed that some of the children’ clothing is used in the quilt itself – in their portraits, and fabric historians recognize this as from the 1830s. This is how all quilts are dated – find the newest fabric. Of course older ones may have been saved and used – but the quilt was made after the newest fabric is created.
Ah, that corner piece! in order to bind the scallops, one would use a bias strip of fabric – its’ still how we do it today. The boy on the horse is embroidered! Most of the design work is embroidery.
Whereas the orange and green faded, the black didn’t. Black was a very hard color to achieve – it was overdoing all kinds of colors, and rarely was it true back. So impressive! Love the embroidery flowers as well. The Boston Museum of Fine arts has an incredible collection of quilts and coverlets, I’m so glad this is a traveling exhibit. I had heard about it on a number of podcasts, but actually seeing these quilts – oh my! more to follow
Leah