Description:
Small, wholecoth, reversible, yellow silk (one one side) and silk and cotton (on the reverse) quilt or possibly a crib quilt quilted over in yellow silk thread in a elaborate design with a center square quilted in a trellis-like pattern and then by series of borders - a rosette border, several rows of straight line quilting, a scrolling border intersperced with hearts, pinwheel, and floral designs, several rows of straight line quilting, and two, half-feather borders; whip-stitched on four sides; and wool or cotton batting. There is evidence showing through on the silk side of the quilting pattern being drawn on. There is a similar silk quilt in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1999-352), which Amelia Peck notes was made by a professional quilter. Silk quilts were not generally intended for everyday use and were not owned by everyday families. The Met's quilt was owned by wealthy Boston family; the textile merchant, William Greenleaf, advertised in "The Boston Weekly News-Letter " of December 1760 that the goods at his shop in Cornhill, Boston, were imported from London and Bristol and that among many other fabrics, he had "callamacoe and silk quilts."
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+F.039 |
