Primrose Path #2: Foral Motifs on Early Chintz

                                        

Border in a quilt at the International Quilt 

Study Center & Museum.

I hope you clicked on the Auricula page yesterday to see Terry Terrell's and Deborah Kraak's Foral Motifs on Early Chintz webpage. And I hope you are as impressed as I am with this feat of digitization.

http://www.flowersonchintz.com/index.htm

      

The Auricula page

Pink or red flowers

You may have noticed you can sort by flower color

Or by name: Common names or Scientific Names

Scroll down and you will find examples of chintz quilts with that particular flower

and also examples of the fabric.

Here's an example: 

I have this photo of a block dated 1842.

I know now that the compound flower in the lower left

is an Auricula and I am guessing the single lily at top right is a calla lily.

So I click on Calla under common names.

Zantedeschia aethiopica 

You see a picture of the flower motif in a chintz with an illustration and a photograph of the flower. And there is the same calla print in the fabric on the left.

Scrolling down they give you many examples of quilts  using calla lilies.

Like Mary Rooker Norris's 1846 quilt in the collection of

the DAR Museum. The calla is along the bottom row here on the left.

https://eyeonelegance.dar.org/node/57

I scroll down to the bottom and they tell me where to find a piece of fabric. Here's what they say:

"The Victoria and Albert Museum, Furnishing Fabric Fragment, Object Number T.418-1967, c. 1830-1840."

I look it up at the V&A by object number and there is the fabric in all its whole-chintz glory. 

http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O288652/furnishing-fabric-unknown/

Here's what they say:

"This website is intended to encourage accurate identification of flowers and other motifs found on chintz printed from the last quarter of the 18th century to the third quarter of the 19th century.  We hope that you will find it useful.  This is a labor of love by the authors, Terry Tickhill Terrell (botanist, quilt historian, and webmaster) and Deborah Kraak (art historian and museum professional).  While the title says the site is designed to be used for flowers on chintz, you will see occasional examples and citations for copperplate printed and indigo resist fabrics.  Further, we believe it can be helpful in identifying flowers on other decorative applications such as on pottery and porcelains.  These areas may be added as time permits and expertise becomes available.  The site is currently quite small but there will be new additions as fast as we can research the flowers and get permission from collections, museums, and individual collectors to use their examples."

I have been bumbling around trying to link fabric and quilts and dates for years. It will be a lot easier now.
Here is a post on the Calla lily image.
http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2017/10/calla-lilies-tulips-and-mexican-shell.html

Tomorrow: Back to the Primrose Path chintz stripe.