Description:
Pieced, plain weave cotton quilt made up of multi-colored, glazed and printed (chintz) cottons (block, cylinder and possibly plate printed) with a center-medallion design, four-piece blocks pieced together in an hour-glass design, and a saw-tooth border; backed in a plain weave, cotton block-printed floral print in a small repeating pattern of dots and propeller shapes in two complimentary colors; and two cutout corner to fit around bed posts. The hourglass piecing of the cotton pieces, probably using paper templates, reflects tjhe continued popularity of this piecing shape since the very early 18th century, as seen on examples from this period in museum collections in England and North America. This quilt is an excellent example of an early New England quilt which takes its inspiration from traditional English design with its large center medallion and combines it with the regional preference for cutout corners. The prominent yellow in the center square and its corners may come from quercitron, a dye stock obtained from the bark of the eastern black oak tree native to the Eastern and Midwestern part of the United States. Quercitron as a commercially-available dye was introduced in England in 1775 by Dr. Edward Bancroft (1744-1821) as a substitute for weld. The quilt's red trellis and quercitron center was very fashionable around 1800-1805.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2004.9 |
