Images(2)

Valance, Indigo Resist

Date1750-1770

OriginEngland; used in America, New York, Albany

MediumCotton

Dimensions12" X 64"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1954-173,3

DescriptionThis is a valance for the top of a tall-post bedstead, made of white cotton printed with indigo in a resist or "paste print" technique in a large-scale floral and leaf design in two shades of indigo blue. The valance is shaped with curved projecting ears on both ends and undulating lines along the bottom edge; the top, where the valance was fastened to the bed, is straight. All edges are faced with a 1 3/4-inch wide resist-printed textile, gathered and tucked to fit, covering the raw edges, which are turned to the front. The facing is printed in a stripe with double undulating vines. Unlined. The valance has been cut down the center and seamed back together with half-inch seam allowances. Velcro tabs sewn to back for exhibition.
Label TextMost fashionable beds of the eighteenth century were enclosed by curtains and topped by narrow valances that formed a decorative heading and hid the curtain hardware. This valance was part of a bed set consisting of curtains to fully enclose the bedstead, topped by decorative valances. The set was used in the Quackenbush family of Albany, New York.

It was especially fashionable to trim curtains and valances with printed edgings that coordinated in color but differed in design scale, for a pattern-on-pattern effect. This valance is trimmed with a small-scale coordinating printed textile.
ProvenanceAccording to Mr. Sussel, these textiles "came from the Quackenbush family of Albany, New York, descendants of John Adams and also the van Pelt family of New York." (Letter to Colonial Williamsburg curator John Graham dated 3/25/1954).