D.A.R. Museum
Center of an early quilt possibly made before 1800
This medallion with a basket center came up when I was searching for accurate quilts
made in the last quarter of the 18th century to celebrate our
250th anniversary this year.
Colonial Williamsburg
The curved "melon" or "orange peel" border is similar in another early quilt attributed to the Philower family of Virginia.
The curved leaf shape could be pieced or appliqued. And variations became popular in the early years of American independence after 1800, particularly as a repeat block pattern.
International Quilt Museum
Byron & Sara Rhodes Dillow Collection
Possibly New Hampshire, 1820-1840, 2008.040.0083
Byron & Sara Rhodes Dillow Collection
Possibly New Hampshire, 1820-1840, 2008.040.0083
Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas
Sally Casey Thayer Collection
See more quilts in this popular brown & white combination at these two posts:
https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2018/11/dark-ground-chintzes-4-what-color-is-it.html
One pattern variation is a square enclosing a shape with curved sides.
In these early versions the quiltmakers set up a high contrast
between the dark & light florals as had been a fabric fashion for several years
around the turn of the century.
The alternate shading idea is called counterchange.
What's dark in one block is light in the next.
Connecticut Project & the Quilt Index
Dates: Probably 1800-1820 on the brown & white versions.
Deerfield Museum Collection
And with changes in color perhaps 1810-1840
The dramatic blue border print has a rather short repeat indicating it is a roller
print after 1810 rather than an earlier plate print or toile.
The Orange Peel pattern continued popular, becoming a staple in the commercial pattern business that began in the late-19th-century. BlockBase shows several variations.
The top row is color variations on the classic design with #1520 a shape variant.
Patterns in the bottom row have more seams but a similar effect when set all over.
1527b perhaps 1820s-1830s
The Connecticut project recorded this quilt made in Woodstock, attributed to two women:
Sophronia Barrett (1822-1917) & Emily Vinton (1843-1919), probably mother & daughter.
In pink & green calicoes, perhaps post-Civil-War.
https://quiltindex.org//view/?type=fullrec&kid=17-13-23
The earliest published name and design seems to be this
from an early (1890 or so) Ladies Art Company catalog
where an Orange Peel cardboard pattern cost a dime.
One can see the origin of the name
although Ruth Finley in her book published in 1929 called it Melon Patch.
The spherical melon, like an orange, is usually eaten after being cut into curved sections.
In 1929.the same year Finley's book was published, pattern designer
Ruby McKim called a version "Lafayette Orange Peel"
in her Kansas City Star column adding a historical tale to
the Ladies' Art Company's name .
Version from the syndicate using names Laura Wheeler & Alice Brooks
I was disappointed this rather sophisticated repeating block design is just not an 18th-century
early pattern but "after 1820 or so." And what did LaFayette have to do with it?
More on the pattern's "history" in the next post.
