South Carolina Chintz Quilt

South Carolina quilt

The Six Know It Alls have a Facebook group 

6KnowItAlls:ShowUsYourQuilts 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/6knowitalls

Dawn showed us this quilt which she saw on a visit to a friend's house telling us, "It is done in what was called broderie perse applique, where a larger design piece is cut from a fabric and then hand appliqued to make a new design on plain fabric." The owner was looking for an appropriate museum for this South Carolina quilt and readers were glad to give her ideas. 

The floral's ivory background matches the shade of the body of the quilt top

so well that the appliquer could cut rather loosely around the

floral images.

We also gave her some ideas about the quilt itself expanding on her knowledge that it was Broderie Perse and from South Carolina. I thought I'd summarize the information and expand further. Dawn noticed right away the quilt's quality and showed us large photos, which I was able to blow up to show details.

We have here a cut-out chintz applique quilt (a style we tend to call Broderie Perse or Persian Embroidery). Florals are arranged medallion style with a central image framed by eight repeated large florals in the corners and at the north/south axes. The large florals seem to be cut from the same chintz.

I didn't recognize the print so I went to Terry Terrell's and Deborah Kraak's remarkable website Flowers On Chintz and looked at their index to red or pink florals. The main flower seems to be a popular subject, a Double Anemone (Anemone coronaria). I didn't see the exact print.

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

http://www.flowersonchintz.com/Flower%20-%20Double%20Anemone_3.htm#Anchor2

Nor did I find the print from which this central ring of small scrolls was cut.

My first guess---a furniture panel---but Merikay Waldvogel has her own

extensive index to panels for chair covers, etc in chintz and she didn't recognize it either.

Charleston Museum Collection

We all certainly recognize the style as the English-printed floral chintzes that were imported in great quantities to the coastal United States 1820-1850. We also recognize the quilt's style as typical of Southern chintz quilts from about 1825 to 1860---medallion sets of florals framed with striped furniture chintzes.

Charleston Museum Collection

The Museum has quite a few similar quilts, these two with central

florals cut from furniture panels rather than from repeat chintzes of scattered florals.

They are displaying their chintz quilts till December this year:

https://www.charlestonmuseum.org/exhibits/upcoming/55/chintz

The border is a single piece of furniture-scale fabric, a stripe

alternating a scroll background with a moiré ground.

The quilting is rather utilitarian, an all-over pattern of parallel diagonal lines framing

squares full of double shells that goes across the applique motifs.

The backing looks to be a coarse cotton or linen

and on it is a stamped name "H.? A. Smith," who may have been

the quilt's owner. The stamped name is typical of the mid-19th century.

(Great to have a name---too bad the name is Smith so any genealogical work

might find far too many Smiths in South Carolina.)

From Dawn's photos the quilt looks to be in good condition with no fabric loss or significant stains on the top. The back is stained, possibly from contact with the paper in which it has been stored. The family told her that the quilt had been restored at the Smithsonian. The Smithsonian does NOT do repair or restoration work for the public, but perhaps a conservator recommended by museum staff worked on the quilt.

As far as a date: Merikay and I spent quite a bit of time examining chintz panel quilts and did a blog for a year or so on the topic in 2018 & 2019. One of our conclusions based on date-inscribed examples was that the style lasted from about 1825 to 1855. 

http://chintzpanelquilt.blogspot.com/2019/09/conclusions-1-revisiting-2013-study.html

We also came to the conclusion that these Southern chintz appliques were purchased by plantation families as finished quilts or finished unquilted bedspreads in Southern commercial centers.

The quilt in question like many others shows an economy of  handwork, requiring little stitching time. Placement and composition of the elegant chintzes in a good deal of white space is the signature style. The more we looked the more we saw a professional hand.

See a post on our conclusions:
http://chintzpanelquilt.blogspot.com/2019/10/conclusions-3-who-made-these-panel.html

Dawn thought there were two other quilts in the family inheritance. What a treasure trove.

And we will remind you: Show Us Your Quilts. The Know-It-Alls love to discuss quilts---hence our name.