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hand pieced cotton hand quilted cotton batting
Not currently on view
Gift of Fleur and Charles Bresler
Album quilts came into fashion in the 1840s, around the time collecting autographs became popular. Ink suitable for writing on fabrics was developed in the 1830s, and women began to sign their initials, full names, and various sentiments on quilt squares given as gifts to commemorate a wedding, birth of a child, or housewarming. Each album quilt is made up of a number of blocks, appliquéd with a different design; although the overall quilt is usually completed by one person, often many different people contribute a block, making each section unique. This tendency reflects a mid-nineteenth-century taste for the “gardenesque” as advanced by landscape designer, horticulturalist, and writer Andrew Jackson Downing (1815-1852). In a gardenesque design, each element of a landscape or quilt must have worthwhile artistic merit on its own, but combine to create a beautiful composition. As such, the fruit trees in this album quilt are all distinct from each other, but with the red squares, birds, and wreaths, present a unified whole within the scalloped edge. (Allure of Flowers) This Album Quilt with a possible New York origin has twenty-one blocks, all signed by different individuals, with names including Elkins, Hibbard, Harrison, Matthews, Meacham, and Smith. Compared to Catherine Bell Hooper's Baltimore Album Quilt, the maker of this quilt placed the blocks on their points, used less extravagant appliqué blocks, and did not use white sashing to define the blocks. The color combination of red, green, and yellow is consistent with quilts dating from the 1850s-1860s. (Bresler)
Accession Number: 2000.62.7
Measurements:
Copyright Information:
Public Domain
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