Quilt, Indigo Resist-Printed Cotton

Date1750-1765

MediumCotton, wool, linen quilting thread. (By microscope)

DimensionsOH 94 1/2"; OW 92 1/2" (top) to 94 1/2" (bottom) Indigo resist textile about 36" wide, as quilted.

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1964-453

DescriptionRectangular bed quilt of indigo resist printed cotton, quilted to wool backing. Quilt's printed top consists of an all-over pattern of undulating arborescent branches, full-blown flowers, large lanceolate leaves, trailing stems, flowerettes, and buds printed in 2 shades of indigo blue on natural-color plain-woven cotton ground. Bed cover is quilted through the front, natural-color woolen batting, and plain-woven natural-color wool backing with 7 to 8 linen running stitches per inch in a closely-spaced zig-zag pattern. Edges turned in toward each other and stitched. Top is seamed vertically at selvages of indigo resist fabric and pieced with additional horizontal seams.
Label TextThis bed cover is typical of whole-cloth quilts made in America from imported printed yard goods. They were often referred to as "calico quilts" in the period. A 1910 newspaper clipping that came with the quilt states that Mrs. Julia Smith of Glastonbury, Connecticut, had bequeathed to Mrs. James Noble of Westfield, Massachusetts (the last owner's grandmother) a quilt described as "the one hundred and twenty year old bed quilt of chintz, made by my grandmother before her marriage, who spun and w[ove] the lining and quilted the same." The quilt's backing does appear to be handspun wool cloth, a fact that lends credence to the history.
ProvenanceA 1910 newspaper article originally sewn to the quilt relates that Mrs. Julia Smith of Glastonbury, Conn., bequeathed to Mrs. James Noble of Westfield, Mass., (Mrs. Harding's grandmother).. "the one hundred and twenty year old bed quilt of dimity [sic.], made by my grandmother before her marriage, who spun and wove the lining and quilted the same." A recent reading of the handwriting in the will suggests that the word is "chintz," rather than "dimity."

A letter from the last owner states that her grandmother was Andalucia Loomis (b. 1831-d. 1920), descendent of the Loomis family from England that settled in Windsor, Connecticut. Her husband, James Noble, descended from Thomas Noble, who came from England and settled in Westfield, Massachusetts in 1639.