Pineapples & Myth Busting

 

Pineapple applique quilt in standard red and green colors, about

1850.

Number 9.74 in my Encyclopedia of Applique was quite popular in album samplers
and as a repeat block through the end of the 19th century.

With many variations as in this photograph from the Georgia project book Georgia Quilts. Center embroidery: "M.A.J. Connell A Present From Her Mother"

Quilt attributed to Italian-born Rachel Boggiano about 1880 from the New York project

https://quiltindex.org//view/?type=fullrec&kid=49-142-5734

In her 1929 book Ruth Finley showed two pineapple quilts giving us information about the symbolism:

"One of the most favored of all post-Colonial designs....a symbol of domestic hospitality." 

Late 19th century, attributed to the Dyer family of Arkansas

Her description has become standard text about pineapple quilts. As I often say, I get tired of arguing with Ruth Finley who is behind most of the American quilt myths that need to be busted.

Historian Michael Olmert wrote in “The Hospitable Pineapple” in the Winter 1997-1998 issue of the Colonial Williamsburg Journal: “And here is what we do not know about pineapples: that they had anything at all to do with hospitality in the 17th and 18th centuries." (He needed an editor, but he was an authority.)

Colonial Williamsburg in its prominent spot as a leader in the Colonial Revival of the early 20th century has long used a pineapple as an important welcome symbol, emphasizing the image in the gift shop and seasonal decorations. The state of Virginia and in truth the whole Old South has co-opted the image as a symbol of "Southern Hospitality."

 Marketing and history---two different departments.

https://shop.colonialwilliamsburg.com/shop-by-collection/all-things-pineapple/

Smithsonian Collection. Attributed to an unknown New Yorker, captioned: 

"The pineapple motif, often associated with hospitality."

Recent writers have been considering myths of Southern Hospitality and the Pineapple's symbolism. Among them:

Julia Blakely at the Smithsonian, The Prickly Meanings of the Pineapple
https://blog.library.si.edu/blog/2021/01/28/the-prickly-meanings-of-the-pineapple/

The Blogger at HistoryMyths:
https://historymyths.wordpress.com/2013/04/03/son-of-pineapple/

Blakely showed this 1657 plate from A True & Exact 

History of the Island of Barbadoes, by Richard Ligon.

Their findings summarized: The pineapple, a South American fruit, was an expensive, imported luxury worth thousands, valued to show off one's wealth while entertaining. 

Royal Collections Trust/Great Britain

King Charles II receiving a pineapple from the royal 

gardener in the 1670s.

Rich people were known to rent pineapples for an event. They were a status symbol, an indicator of wealth and class.

Sort of like this Chanel handbag worth thousands today.

I am sure people rent Chanel bags for the same reasons.

I try not to be too hard on Ruth Finley lately. She documented her times. 

Ruth Ebright Finley (1884-1955)

Who is to argue with the Rockefellers enthusiastically restoring the colonial Virginia capitol Williamsburg in the 1920s or the Southerners creating a white-washed image of their flawed pre-Civil-War culture.

 Did pineapples have any deep meaning to a 19th-century quiltmaker looking for designs?

Indianapolis Museum of Art Collection

https://collections.discovernewfields.org/art/artwork/49557

For that matter, why applique

grapes....

or strawberries?

The pattern below is drawn from a Pennsylvania quilt top in my collection:

You can buy my Pop-In Applique Volume 3 with a couple of pages devoted to pineapples here:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1884470645/pop-in-applique-vol3-of-a-sourcebook?ref=shop

More Pineapple Quilt Posts:
https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2015/06/baltimore-album-quilts-4x5s-and.html
https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2016/08/digital-encyclopedia-of-applique-no.html
https://encyclopediaquiltpatterns.blogspot.com/2019/06/hospital-sketches-block-5-pineapple.html
https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2024/01/phoebes-favorite-7-pineapple.html
https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2021/04/two-unusual-applique-quilts-some-letters.html