Neva Hart recently posted this chintz quilt on Facebook.
Looks like an 1830-1860 medallion of cut-out-chintz motifs.
The oval just about dead center is furniture panel. Merikay Waldvogel
recognized it right away as #6 in her list of these English imported panels.
The panel with its corners designed for a chair seat perhaps.
The panel is upside down in the picture
The quilt was offered at a 1995 Sotheby auction.
Here it is right side up surrounded by bouquets cut from
chintzes.
A red floral strip separates the center field from the border....
an impressive floral swag cut from yardage.
The swag is familiar to fans of the quilts attributed to Achsah
Goodwin Wilkins of Baltimore, pictured in William Dunton's 1946 book
Old Quilts.
These appliqued chintz spreads follow a formula
giving the impression that they were made in some kind of
a workshop.
Here's one Dr. Dunton shows that doesn't follow the formula.
In the collection of Miss Helen H. Carey.
Debby Cooney's collection includes a
a crib-size quilt with a repeat of three of the swags.
That fern seems to be an important part of the swag fabric.
The fern is often connected to a spray of wild roses, which
may be how it was printed.
Do note that blue background here in Debby Cooney's quilt.
Philadelphia Museum of Art
The ferns are gathered in a blue bowknot.
National Museum of American History Smithsonian
The fern without the swag here is in an unfinished piece attributed to Mary Gorsuch Jessop (1767-1832), who lived northeast of Cockeysville, Maryland close to Baltimore.
The center panel is the familiar John Hewson vase surrounded by
birds from his Philadelphia printworks.
Interesting......
An ivory miniature from Mary's FindaGrave site
In this one from an online auction the seamstress trimmed the roses
and left the bowknots.
Here's both swag and fern as corners in a pieced star quilt. I think I took the photo at an AQSG exhibit but what....
The piece above offers the best clue to how the swag and fern was
printed.
We can see that the Carey quilt from Dr. Dunton uses a strip cut
right from the yardage.
The quilt from the Deyerle auction rearranges it flipping the
fern over.
no family connection to the maker, but I may be wrong. I hope Neva finds it. We'd love to see it.
