Sunday, April 15, 2018

Chinese Vase in An Octagon: Panel #31


Panel  #31
 Chinese Vase in an Octagon

Our first post in this database of chintz panels is #31. Merikay gave each panel a number as she discovered it, so the panels will be out of numerical order in the posts. We haven't too much information on this panel and only two quilts. 


The panel features a still life with a basket on the left and a Chinese footed vase on the right. A bird perches in the woody plant growing from the vase. Our two examples in the quilts seem to be from the same mill, both printed in full color chintz. The Irish quilt below still has some of the fugitive purple that often fades to tan in the floral.

Four birds fill the corners outside the brown
8-sided frame.

(Update: Terry Terrell sent a far better photo of the corner bird above, Thanks TT)

The octagonal frame seems more typical of panels found in British quilts.
Both quilts with this panel were found in the United States.

Quilted Bedcover
82" x 89"
Kitty Clark Cole Collection
Michigan State University
From the Michigan project & the Quilt Index 

Kitty Clark Cole purchased the quilt on eBay.... Typed index card attached to the quilt:
 "This quilt (owned by Miss Rose Ranson, 1507 Mound Avenue, Jacksonville, Illinois,) was handed down through the Ranson family and was most likely made in the middle 1700s or earlier."

Rose Ranson (1893 - 1980) who never married was a member of a large Illinois family. The date of 1750 is too early and, like most of the pieces we will examine, this star medallion was probably made about 1820-1850.

Merikay took a picture of the panel on a visit to MSU. Like the
rest of the quilt it appears to have faded.

 A second quilt featuring Panel #31 has been in online auctions at least twice. It is thought to be from Ireland.

86" x 87"
Irish bedcover, unquilted, sold on eBay 2017
And at Jackson's Auction 2012
,
Center of the Irish bedcover.


The chintz applique around the center star has more Chinoiserie.
Other prints include brown-ground chintzes and Turkey red calicoes.

We'll add updates to the information here about Panel 31 as we find it. We'll be posting on the 1st and the 15th of the month until we have covered all the chintz panels in the database. If you've seen an uncut panel or a reproduction let us know.


UPDATE: November 2018. Pam Weeks spotted this quilt in Christopher Wilson Tate's collection at Quilt Market in Houston. Panel #31 in the center. Another British quilt.




UPDATE: December, 2018. Spotted this one in the British Quilters' Guild Heritage Collection

It's just a center fragment, but it's the only one we've seen with a tan ground. See the whole patchwork piece here:
https://www.quiltmuseum.org.uk/collections/heritage/all/1700-1850/vase-and-basket-panel-fragment.html

We can guess this panel was not exported to the U.S.