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DS2003-0569
Quilt, Appliquéd Honeysuckle
DS2003-0569

Quilt, Appliquéd Honeysuckle

DateMay 4th, 1857
Maker Ellen Ann Raywalt (1833 - 1865)
OriginAmerica, New York, Steuben County
MediumRed, green, and orange cottons on a cotton ground with cotton stuffing, and unidentified inner fabric (stuffing identified by microscope, other fibers identified by eye).
DimensionsOW: 69 3/4"; OH: 84 3/4" (177 x 215 cm)
Credit LineGift of Mr. Ernest Ansley
Object number2000.609.5
DescriptionThis red and green appliqued and stuffed quilt is composed of twenty blocks measuring approximately 12 1/4". A 2 1/4" sash is pieced around each block. Each block contains an appliqued and stuffed spray of three red flowers, each with six petals or lobes, and a bud with green stems and leaves. The pattern is sometimes called Honeysuckle. An appliqued and stuffed border measuring approximately 6 1/2" of a running green vine with leaves and red buds is on all four sides of the quilt. The quilt is backed in white plain-woven cotton and bound in a strip of the same. It is quilted in 7-12 running stitches per inch in various patterns including outline, leaves and vine, diamonds, circles, and flowers. Marked in running stitches on the front left center of the quilt is the signature "E A R / May 4th 1857."
Label TextThis red-and-green appliquéd and stuffed quilt is composed of twenty blocks in a variation of the Honeysuckle design. The quilt is backed in white plain-woven cotton and bound in a strip of the same. It is quilted in running stitches in patterns including outline, leaves and vine, diamonds, circles, and flowers. Marked in running stitches on the front left center of the quilt is the signature “E A R / May 4th 1857” for Ellen Ann Raywalt, a schoolteacher who created the quilt just four months before her marriage to Albert H. Ansley in Steuben, New York, on October 28, 1857 (fig. xxx). Honeysuckle has been associated with devotion, love’s bond, and belonging to one another—appropriate symbols for a quilt Ellen probably created as part of her wedding trousseau.
ProvenanceDescended from Ellen Ann Raywalt & A. H. Ansley down to Ernest C. Ansley, and donated to the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum in 2000.