Yesterday we looked at Christina Hays Malcom's 1873 quilt
from the collection of the Spencer Museum of Art.
The design has a few characteristics.
Perhaps the most important is the spinning pinwheel
with the objects hanging on the ends. This four-block is missing the secondary leaf pattern in Christina's classic but it has everything else including the watermelon border.
From the Arizona project & Lenna DeMarco's collection
Amazing how many photos I have of similar quilts.
Most of these are from online auctions.
We've been looking at distinctive Southern patterns over at the QuiltHistorySouth
Facebook page and this design seems to be one of them.
There's also a group with other secondary patterns,
sort of leaves, sort of flowers.
Some have six arms, some eight
Bashie Smith Christian, Waco Texas
From the Texas project and the Quilt Index
Garth's Auction, from Susan Parrish's collection to Julie Silber's
Tennessee project by Sophronia White
And as time passes things get simpler. Fewer tight curves to applique. Fewer pieces.
From Marie Miller's inventory
20th century
From Laura Fisher's Inventory
And then things get strange:
From the Wyoming Project
In Art History we'd call it mannerism.
More and more mannered.
Further from the source.
Minimalism
Further and further from the source
And the source?
A classic abstract floral filling up a square:
As in this embroidered cotton bedcover.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Sallie Kasinger Williams, Waynesboro, Tennessee
Dated 1792
It's wonderful to see so many examples in a row! They remind me of comets.
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