Description:
Pieced, cotton friendship or autograph quilt in the Ohio Star pattern (8 point design) laid out in lattice strips, the pieces made from materials printed in the period mainly in reds, pinks, browns, and blues, and solid white squares, most of which are signed, and with two cutout corner to fit around bed posts; a mulit-piece, off-white cotton backing; and cotton batting. The quilt was given to Dr. Ranson Noble Porter (1823-1883) in 1850, the year he joined the Unitarian Congregational Church of Dublin, NH. The quilt has a square, "For Dr. Porter - Accept this wreath / we've culled for thee / From Friendship's roseate bower; May it a kindly influence shed / O'er many a lonely hour./ S. A. Fiskin/ Dublin Feb. 1850." It is signed by members of the church (see data file), including the woman who became his wife in 1855, "F. P. Mason." At the time of the quilt's presentation, Fidelia Piper Mason (1823-1923) was married to Thaddeus Perry Mason (1817-1851) of Dublin who died of tuberculosis. In 1855, Dr. Porter married Fedelia Mason and the family moved to Deerfield. Their second daughter, Gertrude Porter (1858-1936), married Charles Hart Ashley (1860-1925) of Deerfield in 1889. The quilt descended in the Ashley family until given to HD by Gertrude Porter Ashley's great grandson. The fashion for friendship quilts emerged in the 1840s out of the earlier custom of keeping verses and the signature of friends in bound albums. They were often gifts for loved ones departing for new homes in the west, or as commemorations of special events such as birth or marriage.
Subjects:
Textile fabrics; Cotton Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+96.059.4 |
