Description:
Cotton whitework quilt (or called quilt "in imitation of marseille" in the early 19th century) with a center design of a basket of flowers flanked the initials "MC" and the date "1809" and a scalloped feather frame, an undulating vine and floral frame, and wavy band of leaves around the border (all enhanced with extra stuffing); diagonal parallel lines around the border; and fishnet fringe on three sides, probably added sometime after its initial creation. This quilt came from Harry Arons who purchased it from Miss Elizabeth White Houck of Baltimore, Maryland. Confusingly, the note accompaning the quilt describing family ownership through the Covington family of Maryland referred to a "quilted and embroidered white counterpane initialed E.C. - dated 1805." If the family ownership is correct, the quilt was possibly made by Eleanor Covington Jones, Miss Houck's great-great-great grandmother. Linda Eaton, Director of Collections and Curator of Textiles at Winterthur (May 14, 2011), noted that the face fabric is probably English; the backing (cheaper quality) either imported or woven in America; and the fringe imported or made in American such as fringe being produced in Providence, Rhode Island. Winterthur has a similar example made by Mary Remington of Warwick, RI. Both loom-quilted and and hand-quilted versions of what is now referred to as whitework (white quilts with white embroidery or surface design) were widely available in American during the 18th and 19th centuries. Current scholarship suggests that the contemporary use of the the term 'marseille' referred only to quilting done on the loom, while hand-made examples were referred to as a 'white quilt' or 'white quilted counterpane.' The whitework quilts evolved out of the intricately quilted, stuffed, and embroidered bed quilts, petticoats, and waistcoats produced in France, India, and England in the 17th and 18th century. Called "marseille" after the port through which the French quilting was exported, this work was replicated by the drawloom in a technique patented in 1745. Improvements throughout the 1760s to this quilting accomplished "in the loom" led to the general availabliliy of the fabric, sold as yardage or made up into garments, by the 1770s. The designs of Marselle quilts produced in the loom were based on the traditional handmade marselle bedcovers made in the 17th and early 18th centuries. The neoclassical whitework quilts inspired by the machine-woven examples also display the framed center medallion designs, often with realistic and elegant floral motifs. Both stuffed and embroidered versions of all-white bedcovers were popular during the first third of the 19th century. Stuffed whitework quilts, such as this example, were often made to be included in a bride's wedding outfit, and were particularly prized because of the amount of labor that went into them. Although more difficult to keep clean, white domestic textiles, especially those made from cotton, could be easily laundered.
Subjects:
Textile fabrics; Cotton Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+F.124 |
