Transposed Quilts: More Ideas on the Term

 

New York Project, Relyea family, Ulster County

A Transposed Quilt????

A few weeks ago I posted about my search for "Transposed Quilts" mentioned in agricultural fair records after 1850 or so. What did that term mean?

https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2026/04/transposed-quilts.html

Since then Louise Tiemann and I have been looking for the words "Transposed Quilt" in 19th-century publications, finding some repetitive how-to copy telling us that Transposed Quilts are a rather medieval style of applique similar to what we call "intarsia" today.

Louise found this reference in an American needlework book.

The old European textile technique works best with sturdy wool fabrics. 

U.S. museums have a few imported early examples but intarsia applique

 (or is it piecing?) is rarely seen here.

And it certainly has little to do with the kind of needlework winning prizes at New York agricultural fairs in the 1850s, those we see described as "transposed quilts."

With no definitions apparent Louise and I examined the context in which we found the words "transposed quilt."

It may be important that we see the earliest references in upstate New York.

Typical mid-19th c. quilt in fashionable style.

Oak Leaf and Reel attributed to 

Mary Hasbrouck Wilklow of Ellenville, Ulster County

New York project & the Quilt Index

Buffalo's 1857 newspaper tells us that Mrs. P. Staats won a first at the fair, topping Mrs. J. W. Brown who received a second and a third award for "Best transposed quilt." Mrs. Brown would be hard to find but Mrs. P Staats with her rather unusual Dutch name was easy to track.

Permelia Staats living at 117 Franklin in Buffalo's city center.,

Widow of Barent J. Staats.

Permelia's generation boasted several Barent Staats, one Mayor of Albany in the early 1840s. Her husband's Staats family had been in New York and earlier New Netherland for centuries with American family founders Abraham and Trijntje Staats arriving in what would become Albany in 1642.

Map of New Netherland before it became New York in the 1660s

Hudson River in red near Fort Orange--

later Albany---center of Dutch colonization.

The other clue in the context we noticed was the lack of the word "applique" in the list of style categories. It may very well be that "transposed" means appliqued. Louise found more information on Mrs. J. W. Brown's quilts identifying one as a "chintz applique' when it was entered but her prize was awarded in the "transposed quilt" category. We both think the odd term meant "applique quilt" among that group of upstate needlewomen who were familiar with three types of quilted bedcovers, described below in the list of New York fair winners with representative examples of each .

3 QUILT STYLES

It's also important to our conclusions that we find the term first in the New York area that was so persistently Dutch.

New York Historical Society

Petrus Stuyvesant 

Most Americans know of a single Dutch colonist, one-legged Peter Stuyvesant 

who surrendered New Netherland to the British in the 1660s.

Inheritors of Dutch culture have been ignored in American history with English descendants dominating politically and culturally for the past 400 years. 

Yet, Dutch culture, folkways and language have long survived in New York from Flatbush north to Niagara.

Red and green applique quilts shown here seem typical of those made by New Yorkers of Dutch ancestry about 200 years after New Netherland became New York.

My guess is that the term "transposed quilt" is regional English with roots in Dutch language and needlework classification systems that began in the home of the Dutch New Yorkers. The unusual name was used in a few other places as the century continued.

Lancaster County, Pennsylvania word use: 3 categories for prize winners:

Silk, calico and transposed.

Silk quilt [e.g. crazy etc.], Cotton pieced? and appliqued?

The whole search is Louise's and my idea of a good time. We do love those old newspapers.