Printed Textile Square

Dateca. 1815

MediumCotton, woodblock printed

DimensionsOW 25" OH 25 1/2" ( 64 x 65 cm)

Credit LineBequest of Grace Hartshorn Westerfield

Object number1974-550

DescriptionThis is a printed cotton square or block in a multicolor print consisting of a basket of fruit encircled by a floral wreath with fruit motifs in the corner spaces. It is woodblock-printed in madder colors with pencil blue and glazed. It was printed in a square format for use in a quilt.
Label TextPrinted cotton panels such as this were exported as yardage from British printers. A panel could be used uncut as the center medallion of a quilt, or the motifs could be cut out and arranged in various designs as a quilt center. This unused panel is the same design that appears in two quilts in the Colonial Williamsburg collection--a Petersburg framed center medallion quilt and a Baltimore quilt by Achsah Wilkins.
ProvenanceThe printed square is from the estate of Grace Hartshorn Westerfield. No further provenance is known.