Quilt documented by the Kentucky project
attributed by the family to Johanna Davis of Charleston,
South Carolina.
Like many early 19th-century Charleston quilts,
Johanna's is a celebration of furnishing-scale fabrics,
chintzes.
We'll never know if Joanna made this or bought it in Charleston.
This is the only detail photo I have of that floral stripe in the outer border although
several of the bird prints were popular and used often.
Charleston quilts are noted for their chintz borders. My theory is that in the age of sail, ships sailed from Europe to South America and north up the Atlantic coast, selling all their chintzes in Savannah and Charleston with some left over for Baltimore and few for the northern ports of Philadelphia, New York and Boston. (This theory may be way wrong, but I like it.)
Another complex stripe, yardage
in the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, a gift
of Cora Ginsburg.
Winterthur has a piece in a slightly different colorway, darker in the lacey stripe.
The International Quilt Museum owns a chintz basket with the name Susan Pritchard Kirkwood
and date 1837. Susan was from the Charleston area.
Her quilt uses the light lacy stripe for the first border.
The North Carolina project photographed the light border in a quilt
attributed to Ann Black of North Carolina.
https://quiltindex.org//view/?type=fullrec&kid=21-17-1191
It's in the collection of the Colonial Dames of North Carolina
in Wilmington. Someone might have shopped in Charleston for either fabric
or quilt. Wilmington is the next rather important port north of Charleston so
the fabric or quilt might have been purchased there.
Attributed to Margaret Seyle Burgess, Charleston Museum,
a gift from her great-great granddaughter in 2010.
The Charleston convention of a panel and some chintz cutouts
in a medallion format with an elaborate chintz border.
A fern frond alternating with a floral arrangement.
That neat stripe with the triple red floral
must have framed the wider stripe.
Another version of the fern frond. A different
floral arrangement, though, and not so
skillfully printed --- or maybe it's just the next
stripe over.
Merikay Waldvogel sent this photo of a South Carolina quilt in Spartanburg's
Price House with the fern frond as a wide border. Do note there are
two different floral arrangements left and right... same piece of fabric?
Collection of the Winterthur Museum. See a link at the bottom.
Well, since we are dreaming of chintzes here's my favorite.
Inked on the back Anna B Legare.
Anna Berwick Legare O'Hear (1825-1905) lived in Charleston.
She married Dr. John Sanders O'Hear in 1845.
Same border print in a pieced star. Source?
Maybe Ladies' Circle Patchwork Quilts issue on South
Carolina quilts years ago. My notes say they photographed
it on Edisto Island near Charleston.
I predict we will remain chintz-stripe deprived in the near future.
So we'll have to dream or make them in Spoonflower to our order.
See more on chintz style in the American South and the United Kingdom here:
No comments:
Post a Comment