Description:
Wholecloth quilt featuring a face fabric made with red, plain-weave wool camlet. The face is made from three widths of the red camlet (about 19", 26", and 27" respectively), plus some additonal piecing in one corner. It is likely this fabric was imported from England, but the piecing of the face fabric suggests American construction of the quilt itself using remnants of wool from another use. The camlet has a woven density of about 40epi x 36tpi. The quilting is done in a natural-colored flax thread, however some areas of the quilting appear dark or black in color. The quilting is done in running stitches that are quite large (about 4 stitches per inch). The quilting design features tightly spaced geometric deisgns in a quadrant format and rectangular borders, suggests an early 18th-century date; later wholecloth wool quilts frequently feature more organic quilted designs including undulating vine or feather-like borders and floral motifs, or else more sparse and uniform geometric designs . Wholecloth quilts take their name from the use of whole widths of fabric (usually wool but sometimes silk) that make up the face. These widths are then attached to a backing with a middler layer of batting or wadding using decorative and functional stitching. The backing of this example is made from a linen and wool plain weave fabric; the warps, which are linen, are white, and the wefts, which are wool, are yarn dyed purple (not all of the fibers in each wool weft received the dye evenly). The backing, which may also be imported or possibly woven domestically, has a woven density of about 32epi x 32tpi. All wool threads in both the face and backing fabric are woven in a loosely spun S-twist. The edges of the face fabric and backing fabric on all four sides are turned in and a double row of stitching secures and stabilizes the ends. The batting is undyed wool. Quilts were an important feature of Anglo-American colonial households in the 17th and 18th centuries. They provided warmth and added visual interest to bedchambers and parlors. Early quilts like this are rare; many that do survive with a similar pattern are made with face fabrics of silk. Historic Deerfield owns a quilted petticoat made with a yellow silk face in an aesthetically similar quilting pattern (see 2000.72.3).
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2019.32 |
