Panel #29, Chinese figures in an arch
Panel 29
Chinese Scene
We are coming to the end of the panel database and have grouped four landscape panels. The first is unusual in design with an arch for a frame and unusual in that we have few American examples in the database.
Faded example in the center of a quilt sold at a Copake auction in the U.S. this year.
Hexagon patchwork in a border.
From a Christie's Auction in England
We have a little more information about this one, which was made in
Cumbria in northwest England
And this intriguing photo of a photocopy of a quilt attributed to
Esther Straker Jackson in County Durham in the north of England
See another panel with Chinese (Chinoiserie) imagery that was more popular with Americans at this post:
Panel #33
Swans Under a Bridge
We have so few quilts with landscape #33 (just two) that this is the best we can do for a photo. Fortunately, Deryn O'Connor and Tina Fenwick Smith describe it in their chapter in the British Quilters Guild Heritage Search summary Quilt Treasures.
Figure 159
They show a detail of the panel in the center
They found this example at Penrith in Cumbria, England with "a pair of black swans swimming before a waterfall with a bridge spanning the river all beset with lush flowers and trees."
"The remarkable feature of this medallion is that the central picture and the border are all printed on the same fabric, necessitating the border to be printed with mitered corners."
The mitered corners.
Here's a better view of the border---Chinese landscape with humans, deer, birds, a building, palm trees and a sailing boat. Scroll down to see the quilt in the Philadelphia Museum of Art with the same landscape stripe.
Our only other bedcover with the swan panel was pictured in Averil Colby's 1958 book on British quilts, Patchwork, and curiously enough the panel has the same stripe in the same position around the landscape.
But not quite the same position, indicating that the stripe was
a separate piece added to the panel.
Perhaps the stripe was a companion fabric sold with the swan panel.
Like the other landscape panels in this post it seems to have been sold in the
British market, rarely reaching the United States.
Panel #34
Deer and Birds
Panel #34 is also a landscape, an oval with two exotic birds in a tree,
long-legged shore birds on the left and a pair of deer. We have only two
bedcovers with this panel in the database.
Collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art,
attributed to England. A gift of the Ginsburg family in
memory of textile dealer Cora Ginsburg
The untrimmed central panel is framed by the Chinoiserie landscape
stripe, more evidence that the stripe was not printed as part of the swan panel.
Perhaps it was printed in this repeat with 3 different stripes of different scenes.
But what about that thin dark stripe---was that in there too?
Probably not.
Sold on EBay, no information, but it certainly
looks like an English frame quilt.
Panel #36
Palm Tree and Birds
Panel #36, Palm Tree and Birds
Above an exotic palm with game birds on the ground and song birds in the trees.
We have two good photos of panel 36, this one more colorful with the yellows and purples brighter, maybe a different colorway but perhaps less faded.
The design has much in common with the very
popular palm tree and pheasant repeat pattern here shown with a white ground.
The panel measures 22" across. It's a more popular panel than the other landscapes, according to the database.
A quilt with the palm fabric was offered on EBay a few years ago.
The seller in Iowa had a family story that it was purchased in
Lincolnshire, England and brought to the United States in 1850
by the Hakenson family.
Top in the collection of the New England Quilt Museum.
Looks British style.
(Is the photo reversed at the Quilt Index?)
Pictured in the 1987 Quilt Engagement Calendar from the inventory
of Tom Woodard & Blanche Greenstein
The textured look of the prints is a British design characteristic.
We have one example located in Great Britain:
Quilt once in the Mrs. Blackett-Ord's Helbeck Collection, exhibited in Cumbria.
The composition is odd with the large strip at the top, much like the
ebay quilt with the black swan panel above.
The Helbeck quilt is shown on the small catalog of that show. It's since
been sold at a Kerry Taylor auction.
And then there are the photos we find floating around on the internet.
Don't know where these are located.
Four of Panel #30 birds in a nest frame the larger #36
See our post on the smaller panel #30 here:
We have no examples of quilts with Panel #30 (the corner panels above) that we think were made in the U.S., judging by style characteristics. But nearly all those in the files are now located in the U.S. We may not have imported the panel but we seem to have imported the quilts.
Attributed to Eliza Ely Bready (ca 1820-?), Philadelphia
Winterthur Museum. Gift of Marguerite (Margaret) L.
Riegel (1892-1983) in 1963, Eliza's granddaughter.
This unusual piece in the Winterthur may be the only American-stitched quilt with palm tree panel. The museum has good close-up shots at their website. Do a search here for Bready:
But it really doesn't fit into the category of American-style chintz quilt either.
Three Chinese figures---some kind of a fight?
A Christian saint?
What Have We Learned from the Landscape Panels?
Panel #28 in a quilt in the Bowes Museum
These panels seem to have been more to English taste, reminding us of the style
in this basket of flower design #28 found in the center of the Austen family quilt.
The Austen patchwork
Perhaps printed by one mill that did not ship fabric off in the export trade.
