Collection of the Winterthur Museum
Patchwork quilt with embroidery signed Rachel Mackey and dated 1787
Over at the 6KIAs Facebook group we looked at quilts attributed to the first 25 years of American independence from 1775 to 1800. (Join the group at the link at the bottom of the page.)
Embroidered center of the Mackey quilt,
wool and silk yarns on linen/cotton mixed fabric
The Mackey quilt is a recent (2019) Winterthur acquisition. Here's the long link to the catalog:
Her embroidered images reflect the influence
of 18th c. traditional wool embroidery on later applique
designs of the 19th century.
Mid-19th c applique in cotton
Initials & dates in Rachel's embroidery perhaps
The September focus on our Show Us Your Quilts page was to post your earliest quilt.
Readers showed many early 19th century pieces (1825-1850) from their collections but the really early bedcovers tend to be in museums as in the 6 date-inscribed pictured above (a representative sample.).
Mary Jones, whose quilt is in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, is harder to track than Rachel Mackey Wherry. Mary's quilt was in the inventory of America Hurrah in the 1980s. Cyril Nelson pictured it in his Quilt Engagement Calendar of 1988 (too yellow in the photo above.)
(More accurate color)
In 1994 the the Art Institute's Antiquarian Society bought it for the museum where curators have examined it closely and determined that while the central embroidered piece might be 1795 the presence of roller-printed cottons and other 19th c. fabrics indicate a 19th c. date.
"Mary
Jones
1795"
The Ohio Historical Society owns this quilt attributed to Sally Howard Bailey---
a field of patchwork with embroidered squares scattered through.
Its number is H18064 but I haven't been able to find it again in their files.
Reworking an earlier piece of needlework into patchwork bedding seems
to have been common in the late 18th & early 19th centuries.
Collection of Old Sturbridge Village
Nancy Newton's birthdate is in the center of this embroidered piece with minimal patchwork borders.
Nancy lived till 1887. She was born a U.S. citizen in the state of New Hampshire.
Cyndi at the Busy Thimble saw a program on the Newton quilt a few years ago and posted photos.
Curator Rebecca Beall explained what she saw in the central embroidery.
Nancy took apart a pocket she had embroidered earlier and enlarged it by designing similar motifs to fill out a rectangle about 33 x 44".
Detail with another pocket at top right to show scale.
Details: The Museum did a repro line years ago with
the border floral here: "New England Quilts" for Marcus.
Historic Deerfield Collection
Combination of styles---always hard to live through times of change.
This looks like a compromise to fleeting fashion. 1) Everybody's embroidering----
2) Oops, everybody's piecing stars of toiles.
Let's add new fashion to old.
Cora Ginsburg Catalog
A less inspired solution to the change in style.
her name under the central embroidered square
"Sally Lee Camden Her Bed Quilt"
Quilt owner Rusty found a Sally Lee Camden born in 1777 (or possibly 1785) in Amherst County, Virginia. Her parents were William and Sybell Dent Camden. She married cousin Peter Dent in 1807 and changed her name to Sally Dent, so we can guess that the quilt was made before 1807. Sally died about 1850 in Bedford County, Virginia. See a post on the quilt from several years ago here:
And more about Sally here:
The footed vase often with curved handles is quite typical of the early embroidery.
Style in America's Earliest Patchwork
Looking at early quilts we can define a few design characteristics:
2) Simple patchwork patterns include triangles, squares and basic stars constructed of triangles & squares
3) Medallion format with a central focus
4) Combination of patchwork with embroidered areas (often recycled from older textiles)
The Smithsonian owns this quilt inscribed 1795 & M Campbell
She followed all the rules except did not feature older
pieces of needlework. It looks like her floral elements were stitched at the same time as the patchwork.
Again the footed vase with curved handles is a feature.
The technique may be reverse applique.
1797 Hannah John
Maine project (Maine was Massachusetts in 1797)
Hannah's quilt has much in common with M Campbell's---
the standard design for the time and the substitution of (reverse?) applique
for an older embroidered textile.
The DAR Museum shows a quilt that Newbie Richardson found with a similar center image.
Photo squared up in Photoshop
Before I realized the impact of professional quiltmaking on quilt history I might
have thought one woman made three quilts for three daughters.
Now I believe this kind of visual relationship is proof of some kind of commercial enterprise.
Teaching Pattern? Fancy Goods Shop Pattern? Professional Quilt Workshop?
Other Central Focus Ideas
A Toile
Mount Vernon Collection
Quilt attributed to Martha Washington with the Penn's Treaty toile in the center
Any object associated with a famous Colonial like Martha Washington becomes suspect as to its provenance. (Too much wishing to make it more valuable.)
But this particular quilt (100 inches wide) at least looks as if it might have been stitched by the first First Lady before her death in 1802. She certainly followed the style (or perhaps led it.) The toile, printed in red or brown, is dated to 1775-1795 by the Art Institute of Chicago which has a piece on cotton.
More on Martha Washington & quilts:
https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2019/09/martha-washington-teaches-quilting.html
MESDA Collection
Elizabeth Webster's quilt signed and dated 1796 looks
rather minimalist besides the other quilts. It follows the style:
darks & lights, simple patchwork and medallion format, but a floral
print for the center has little drama.
Elizabeth lived in Maryland
Style continued beyond the turn of the century---
we might classify the design trend as 1780-1810 or 1820.
A few questions:
Who communicated that style?
A teacher? An influential fashionista? A commercial fancy goods shop?
Where?
How?
Were there fairs, exhibitions or similar displays to show off women's work in 1790s America. Or was it hand-to-hand transmission --- a tea party, classes, a sewing circle?
Early quilt style----a rabbit hole as we say. I'll pop up from time to time with new ideas (not all of them valid.)
More on the style at this post:
Join our 6knowitalls Facebook group
or
Rachel Mackey Wherry's grave:
