Images(29)

Quilt, White Stuffed Work

Dateca. 1830

OriginEurope, France; owned in America, Virginia, Williamsburg

MediumCotton, cotton stuffing, cotton stitching threads, and linen quilting threads

DimensionsOH: 104 3/4 in.; OW: 70 in. Center section consisting of a counterpane: OH: 61" x OW: 57" Extension, left side: 3 7/8"; extension, right side: 3 7/8"; top extension: 15 1/8"; T-shape extension at bottom: 14 3/4" Cutouts: OH 11 3/4" x 5"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number2017-277

DescriptionThis is a white cotton "T-shaped" quilt created in a stuffed-worked technique called Marseille, which was indicative of quilts made in the Provence area of France in the early nineteenth century. The quilt has been enlarged with extensions on all four sides from a stuff-worked quilt with a coarser ground. The pattern of the center rectangular section consists of a center square medallion on point containing a basket with a sprouting flowering plant and a border of meandering flowering vine. There is a grid background of alternating squares on point filled with flowers or dots; an inner border of diagonal parallel lines, and a large outer border consisting of a variety of motifs: baskets with flowering plants; undulating vine of grapes; lyre; shepherd and lamb; two "love birds;" shepherdess and lamb; birds; 2 crossed cornucopia; and double hearts with canopy. The corners are filled with squares on point containing dots and stylized flower heads. There is a narrow outer border of a leaf-like motif. The extensions are quilted in baskets, geometrics, swags, and tassel motifs. The quilt is backed in a coarser plain weave cotton. The quilt is bordered at bottom and sides in a 2 3/4" fringe with balls; it is finished with a knife edge at top and in cutouts at bottom of quilt. The quilt is marked at top right: lowercase "t" or "7" and "KT" worked in fine running stitches in faded red thread (unidentified fiber) and on reverse: "A" or "V" worked in cross-stitch in faded red thread (fiber unidentified).
Label TextBy the second quarter of the nineteenth century, quilted white cotton bedcovers were popular in both urban and rural households, reflecting the fashion for high-style Neoclassical taste. This quilt is created in a stuff-worked technique called Marseille, which was indicative of quilts made in the Provence area of France in the early nineteenth century. The technique, which began in France earlier, spread to Great Britain and America. It is quite likely that quilts like this were in Virginia in the early nineteenth century. In fact, this very quilt may have been used in Williamsburg. The previous owner recalled that it was acquired from a house off of the Palace Green in the 1960s.

White bedcovers like this one are often referred to as "wedding Quilts." This one is filled with quilted imagery including love birds, double hearts, and a shepherd and shepherdess.
MarkingsAt top right: lowercase "t" or "7" and "KT" worked in fine running stitches in faded red thread (unidentified fiber)
On reverse of quilt: "A" or "V" worked in cross-stitch in faded red thread (fiber unidentified)
ProvenancePer the owner, her mother, Janie Glen Hurt, acquired the quilt from William Hodges, an antique dealer, in the mid to late 1960s. The mother (and daughter?) owned an antique shop on Richmond Road called Glen Lynn Mercantile. (At that time she also acquired 2 very similar whitework quilts and an oval boxed pillow with tassels, which were later sold at an antique auction.) Mr Hodges informed Janie Glen Hurt that he had purchased the quilt directly from the family owners of the quilt; they lived "in the first house on the right road off of Palace Green." This house is the St. George Tucker House. No further information was found to further substantiate the claim that the quilt may have been in the St. George Tucker House in the first half of the nineteenth century.

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