Civil War or Crimean War?

Last week I wondered about the story on this unquilted bedcover in the collection of the Shelburne Museum. For sixty years it has been published as having been made by a recovering American soldier, a veteran of the Civil War.

Here is a corner block from the appliqued border.

The Shelburne's counterpane features a center panel with human figures, hearts and leafy vegetation floating on a white background, much like this bedcover:

Detail of the center of a  British bedcover by Nancy Horsfall, 1833,

in the Gawthorpe Textiles Collection:

http://www.gawthorpetextiles.org.uk/

And this one where human figures, horses and other creatures float around a central star: the center of an 1874 bedcover by British children in the Cam Blue Coat School in the collection of Britain's Quilt Museum and Gallery.

http://www.quiltmuseum.org.uk/collections/heritage/cam-blue-coat-school-coverlet.html

The Shelburne coverlet's figures are similar to the horseman in this unquilted British bedcover in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, which has prominent shapes based on on Hiram Powers's 'The Greek Slave' sculpture done in 1846 (the figure in orange and red above.)

See the quilt at their website here:

http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O125297/bed-cover-unknown/

Some shapes are similar in the Greek Slave bedcover and the Shelburne's but also important is another style characteristic popular with British patchworkers: the idea of cutting the applique from a large print. In the Greek Slave bedcover the maker was fond of buff and blue stripes:

Buff and blue stripes shaded in rainbow or fondu style were quite popular in America and England about 1840-1865, shown off to nice effect in this American block quilt from Laura Fisher Quilts.

The unknown maker of the Shelburne's counterpane also used large-scale buff and blue prints for figures.

I haven't seen the Shelburne's quilt in the cloth, so I don't really have any visual evidence that the fabrics are earlier than the 1870's period alluded to in the idea that a recovering American veteran made the quilt. I'm going more on style. The style incorporating an appliqued center in a field of triangular patchwork was done in both America and Britain, but by the 1870s Americans were no longer interested in a framed center design.

American Anna Tuel's quilt dated 1786,

a field of patchwork frames a central appliqued design.

Collection: Wadsworth Atheneum

Americans stopped using medallion sets with fields of patchwork early in the 19th century.

British frame quilt

Britons continued to favor the set into the 20th century.

Could the Shelburne's quilt be British? 

And consider the social context: The idea of an American veteran doing patchwork for post-traumatic stress therapy is not a common story.

But it is a common story in Great Britain, where Crimean War soldiers were encouraged to stitch patchwork. A good body of surviving quilts offers evidence that they took to the activity enthusiastically.

Crimean War quilt

Sold at Kerry Taylor Auctions in London

The Battle of Balaclava, 1854

The Crimean War between Russia and England that took place in 1853-1856 is best remembered in the U.S. for Florence Nightingale's work with wounded soldiers, an inspiration to women in our Civil War (1861-1865).

Detail of Private Thomas Walker

by Thomas Wood, 1855

Collection: Royal College of Surgeons

 The idea of men piecing scraps of wool into elaborate bedcovers was popular enough in Britain that an 1855 painting records the activity. 

Americans did not follow the British practice of occupational therapy for recovering soldiers, however.
It is possible that the Shelburne's quilt was handed down with the story of a recovering soldier's making it---but recovering from a different war. This is all speculation but consider this image.

The Charge of the Light Brigade

by Richard Caton Woodville

We've all heard of the Light Brigade made famous in 1854. The Light Brigade were Lancers, horsemen who did not carry guns but fought with swords and lances---long sharp sticks---lighter than firearms. 

The horsemen in the Shelburne's quilt

carry their arms more like lances than like guns.

I have one more post on this.

You have to wait till next week.

Civil War Quilt???

This unquilted counterpane has been in the collection of Vermont's Shelburne Museum since 1952.  In the original Shelburne catalog published in 1957 curator Lilian Baker Carlisle began her catalog entry with:

" This spread, illustrated and described in American Quilts and Coverlets by Florence Peto, was found in New Jersey and shows textiles much older than the Civil War period....Traditionally this counterpane was made by a Civil War veteran whose nerves had been shattered by his wartime experiences. After he was invalided home, he started this quilt as a therapeutic measure..."

She was using information from dealer and collector Florence Peto who found the quilt and probably sold it to the Shelburne. In her book Peto described the fabrics as "chintz, Scotch ginghams [woven plaids I assume], and paisley-patterned calicoes, all characteristic of the period..." 

Peto saw symbolism in the imagery:

"Crescent moons, hearts, and fat, complacent doves may have been introduced to the militant picture to humor a wife or sweetheart."

The central area has appliqued human figures around a star or sun.

This woman with something in her hand seemed familiar to Carlisle & Peto

as La Belle Chocolatiere

(The beautiful waitress in the chocolate shop)

from this 18th century pastel drawing by

Jean-Etienne Liotard,

which became part of the image of the American Baker's Chocolate Company in the 1880s.

Following a field of triangular patchwork are more human figures, men on horseback alternating with men on foot.

The last border is a variation on the patchwork field.

There seems to be a difference of opinion between Carlisle and Peto. Could it be that the quilt is made of  "textiles much older than the Civil War period." rather than "characteristic of the [Civil War] period."

Two British quilts with similar figures

It's foolhardy to try to date fabrics from photographs. The best evidence available from photos is style. This unquilted, finished counterpane has much more in common stylewise with British quilts than American.

I just doubt that it is an American Civil War commemorative.

More next week after I marshal my arguments.

Dixie Dairy 5: Tokens of Dried Roses

Block 5

Tokens of Dried Roses

 12" version with a 1" frame, set on point

By Sandi Brothers.

Block 5

Tokens of Dried Roses

8" Version

Sarah Morgan's grief over lost memories is echoed in a sawtooth star.

Dried flowers pressed in an album dated 1867

Union and Confederate armies clashed near the Morgan houses in early August. Sarah's home was severely damaged, not from shelling but from vandalism by the victorious Yankees. The women left the Asylum and  moved from friend's house to friend's house, landing at a plantation twenty miles north of Baton Rouge. At the end of August sister Miriam returned from a trip home to their battered neighborhood.

Andrew D.Lytle 

Baton Rouge with the State Capitol in the distance

August 25, 1862 Linwood, East Feliciana Parish

"She says when she entered [our] house, she burst into tears at the desolation. It was one scene of ruin. Libraries emptied, china smashed, sideboards split open with axes, three cedar chests cut open, plundered, and set up on end; all parlor ornaments carried off…. They entered my room, broke that fine mirror for sport, pulled down the rods from the bed and with them pulverized my toilet set, taking all Lydia's china ornaments I had packed in the wash-stand. The debris filled my basin and ornamented my bed. My desk was broken open. Over it was spread all my letters, and private papers, a diary I kept when twelve years old, and sundry 'tokens of dried roses, etc,' which must have been very funny, them all being labeled with the donor's name and the occasion. Fool! how I writhe when I think of all they saw…Lilly's sewing-machine had disappeared; but as mother's was too heavy to move, they merely smashed the needles."

Library of Congress

Sewing machines were considered the machinery of war because uniforms were sewed on them. Union soldiers often destroyed machines when they came upon them. Breaking the needles was enough. With the blockade Southerners had a hard time getting replacements.

The pieced block has a BlockBase number.

BlockBase #2830
Aunt Eliza's Star

Cutting 12":

A:  Cut 1 square 6 1/8".

B: Cut 4 squares 4 1/2" for the background.

C:  Cut 3 squares 5 1/4". (1 of background, 2  for star points).  Cut each into 4 triangles with 2 diagonal cuts.

You need 12 triangles.

Cutting 8":

A:  Cut 1 square 4-1/4".

B: Cut 4 squares 3-1/8" for the background. (3-3/16" is the larger measurement if you use the BlockBase 1/16th" default)

C:  Cut 3 squares 3-7/8". (1 of background, 2  for star points).  Cut each into 4 triangles with 2 diagonal cuts.

Make 4 corner units out of square B and the triangles. Then make diagonal strips.

Optional applique

Applique a star or a heart after piecing.

See the PDF by finding the template image over in the left hand column or go back to the January 5, 2013 post to see a JPG with the heart and the star.

http://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/2013/01/dixie-diary-1-her-flag-flying.html

A soldier occupies a Southern mansion.

William Waud, 1864

Library of Congress

• 
  

The Medallion Set

Civil War Sampler by Ruth

She's finished the 2011 series of blocks.

Ruth at Country Log Cabin writes:

"Finally finished my CW quilt and you can find pictures of it here:

http://countrylogcabin.blogspot.com/2013/04/civil-war-quilt-finished.html

I am very happy to have it finished. I quilted it myself on my Janome 6600. "

I certainly like that fake medallion set---I guess it's a fake because it's really blocks on point alternating with pieced blocks shaded in concentric rows.

Several people used it--- like Karen D above

And Karen in Tucson

 Tora Quilt

Dutch Quilt Cat

And Domy R

If you haven't done all the 50 plus blocks from that series you might think about this set for fewer blocks

It would work for 9...

As in the center of Tora's

Or 25

As in the center of Ruth's

As well as for 49 plus 4 corners as in the finished tops above.

Here's a post with instructions:

http://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/2011/11/more-setting-ideas.html

Circuit Rider's Quilt---An Ohio Commemorative

The Circuit Rider's Quilt

by Jenifer Dick, copy of a quilt in the collection of 

The Art Institute of Chicago

See the original quilt here:

http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/76021

Few quilt have the name recognition of the Circuit Rider's Quilt, an Ohio album, that has been romanticized over the past hundred years by the woman who donated it to the Art Institute and by several twentieth century quilt writers. Most recently it was a block-of-the-month in the Kansas City Star and a pattern book by Jenifer Dick---an excellent source for mid-19th century applique designs.

Although most of the history associated with the quilt has to do with the minister for whom it was made, I thought it might have some connection to the Civil War. Like many other samplers of the 1860s it features a Union shield in the center.

The shield from the original quilt.

Might we consider it a Civil War quilt or a commemorative?
I assume that there is no date actually inscribed on the quilt. The Art Institute caption and most writing dates it to 1862, which makes one think it would qualify as a Civil War quilt, but Susan Price Miller, who did an extensive study of the quilt for an American Quilt Study Group paper, dates it to 1867, based on genealogical information about the signers.

We can hypothesize that it's a Civil War commemorative quilt, however, because of the Union shield in the center. Above and below the shield are the names Augustus Troth and A.J. Troth.  Miller assumes this "symbolizes his status as a Civil War veteran." He was a private in the Ohio Infantry in the war.

The quilt was presented to George Warvel, a minister in the the Church of the United Brethren in Christ. Over the years it has come to be called The Circuit Rider's quilt, although Warvel was not a circuit rider. Miller discusses the mythmaking behind the quilt in her paper.

Miller found out more about Augustus Troth, most of it scandalous. It appears he had an affair with his wife's hired girl and left town abandoning both the wife Lizzie Troth, the servant Nancy and her child Orie. The women raised the child together. See some discussion of the scandal by descendants here:
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/PREBLE_CO_OH/2005-03/1109803377

Jenifer Dick

Circuit Rider's Quilt

Another set for the blocks that were a 

Block of the Month pattern in the Kansas City Star

UPDATE

Jenifer Dick, author of the pattern book The Circuit Rider's Quilt added some information. She believes the quilt's name is correct as the minister for whom it was made did ride a circuit. In her book she outlines all the circuits, stations and missions he served at in his career –"All information," she says, that "I got directly from the United Brethren Church archives in Ohio. They consider him a circuit rider, so I never questioned that part of the story…

She adds:

"The reason the quilt is dated 1862 is because that’s when he left the Low Chapel where the congregation who made the quilt were. He left the appointment when he enlisted in the 167^th Regiment of the Ohio Infantry , Company E. 100 days service (as a Chaplain). After his service, he did not return to Low Chapel and was onto another circuit. It would be highly unlikely that congregation would have waited 5 years to make him the quilt (not improbable though.) "

I say: Either date I think we can classify it as a Civil War quilt.

-------------
Read Susan Price Miller's "The Circuit Rider's Quilt: Romance and Reality" in Uncoverings 2009, Volume 29 of the Research Papers of the American Quilt Study Group. Order it here:
http://www.americanquiltstudygroup.org/UCDetail.asp?ID=29

Here's the abstract describing the paper:

In 1919, the Art Institute of Chicago accessioned an appliquéd album quilt which had been donated by Emma Blanxius Hodge, called the “Circuit Rider's Quilt.” Accompanying information described it as having been presented to George C. Warvel, an Ohio minister. An article published in 1923 portrayed Warvel as an iconic circuit rider of the frontier, and this romanticized story was repeated in print media throughout the twentieth century. The disparity between the romance and the reality of the quilt's story serves as an illustration of the powerful influence of the Colonial Revival movement in twentieth-century America, the roles of collectors and magazine writers in perpetuating popular stories, and the important contributions possible through partnerships between committed quilt researchers and museum curators.

I think it's enough evidence to qualify the sampler as a Civil War commemorative. I added it to my Pinterest Page Quilt Civil War.
http://pinterest.com/materialculture/quilt-civil-war/

What's Up?

Amy at Lexington Quilter

http://lexingtonquilter.blogspot.com/2013/03/dixie-diary-month-3.html

Amy's using French General Prints

I've found many blocks from the Dixie Diary Block of the Month pattern up on the internet.

RCCheryl

Karen at Breezy Point Quilts

She's making two using Jo Morton's Alexandria prints

On her blog she says she "got sucked into it." Yay! That's my job.

http://moosebaymuses.blogspot.com/2013_03_01_archive.html

Pinkdeenster is incorporating scraps of old embroidery.

Kookaburra Calling has added a second layer to the applique,

which works nicely.

And WonesmartCookie has added 

another little something to the applique.

Those above are from our Flickr Group:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/civilwarquilts2011/

I also found a few posts on other blogs....

 CookiesCreek is using pink and brown.

http://cookiescreek.com/tag/civil-war-quilt/

Reems Creek Chronicles

http://rcquilting.blogspot.com/

Keep posting those pix!