Fabulous Chintz Swag

 

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.

https://philamuseum.org/collection/object/93696

The Philadelphia Museum of Art owns this spread with a border of Chinoiserie figures. Four swags make up the center. Cora Ginsburg's family donated the piece with very little information. I'd bet on a Baltimore origin.

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

https://www.si.edu/object/1800-1850-mary-jessops-appliqued-quilt-top%3Anmah_556491

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

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/29665561/mary-jessop

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.

I would guess that Neva Hart is interested in finding this quilt today because the Deyerles lived in Harrisonburg, Virginia, home of the Virginia Quilt Museum. I guess they were collectors with
no family connection to the maker, but I may be wrong. I hope Neva finds it. We'd love to see it.