QUILTS & FABRIC: PAST & PRESENT


Friday, June 1, 2018

Pheasant & Palm Chintz #1

Strip set quilt from a Bonham's auction

The Pheasant and Palm Tree print was one of the the most popular prints with American quilters in the first half of the 19th-century.

Palm tree above a single pheasant;
a sort of a passion flower or hibiscus to the right with a loopy outline.

You learn to recognize it wherever you see it.

In  the center of a medallion quilt attributed to
Betsy Crocker in Dayton, Montgomery County,
Ohio. Found in the Ohio project and pictured in their book,
Quilts in Community.

Betsy's quilt, unusual in Ohio, would be right at home
along the Eastern Shore in Maryland and Virginia.
See similar medallions here:

From the Rhode Island project & the Quilt Index

In a time of busy pattern, quiltmakers seemed to think it the
perfect neutral.

Online auction



 Stenciled blocks by Olivia Dunham Barnes
American Museum of Folk Art.

2012-013-0003
International Quilt Study Center & Museum
Gift of Patricia Cox


Winterthur Museum collection.

An accent to any design.

Once in Margaret Cavigga's collection

Many applique artists cut the trees out and rearranged
them into their Broderie Perse designs.

Metropolitan Museum of Art
Mary Malvina Cook Taft

Others thought the fabric perfect for wholecloth
bedcovers

Skinner Auction

I've been collecting photos of the print and trying to figure out where it came from and how we can use it to date quilts. More tomorrow and for a couple more days.

2 comments:

  1. Barbara,
    In the 6th photo down of Betsy's quilt can you provide more information on the blue inner border? Is it a similar pheasant type design in blue?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lisa--I can't see the print in that piece of fabric but it looks kind of Bannister Hall-ish. Islands of figures floating in a colored sea of blotch ground.

    ReplyDelete