Lucinda Ward Honstain quilt
International Quilt Study Center & Museum
I was leafing through a 1975 Quilt Engagement Calendar, the first of
a great series that published photos of antique quilts for a decade or more.
Editor Cyril Nelson got most of his photos from New York antique dealers.
I stumbled upon this sampler top:
... from the collection of dealer George E. Schoellkopf.
The caption:
Plate "41. Applique quilt top, dated 1867, New England. 88" x 79".
Photograph George E. Schoellkopf Gallery. (Privately Owned)"
I doubt it's a New England quilt for reasons I showed yesterday.
Red sashing, corner imagery, cats and tulips. Got to be New York.
Wait a minute, it's a twin (fraternal) to Lucinda Honstain's sampler.
The quilt on the left is 84" x 97"
The one on the right 79" wide x 88"
"E B
1867
Tom"
The unfinished top has cross-stitched initials in many blocks. The pink cat Tom
is dated the same year as Lucinda's: 1867
The cross-stitch is similar to the Honstain quilt dated the same year. Only a few blocks in that
quilt are inscribed.
The Honstain quilt has two cats, one with a little bird cut from a rainbow blue stripe teasing him just like the birds in the quilt top.
Both have a dog and a dog house and a tree.
The blocks on the left maybe a little larger. The images are usually simpler in the top
and the detail not quite so fine.
A sailor. Lucinda Honstain's son-in-law Hamilton Bingham was
a Union sailor in the Civil War.
A Temple of Liberty perhaps
Simpler on the right but the same letters *L I B E R T Y*
over the figure of Miss Liberty in her liberty cap with her liberty pole.
"Jeff Davis & Daughter" on the left. Flag-holding girl on the right.
The imagery in the corners is another clue to a New York quilt.
Fish Fry
Camel
IQSCM has two quilts from the Honstain family, the sampler
which has been attributed to Lucinda Ward Honstain and a Tulip quilt
with daughter Emma Honstain Bingham's initials on it. Both feature this tulip or lily
that is a characteristic of New York quilts.
What to make of it?
I'm thinking. More tomorrow.
Younger person in the family?
ReplyDeleteWhy would they put the camel in these quilts? It’s not a local animal, I don’t think!
ReplyDelete