Quilting has constituted an important part of the American textile tradition since the eighteenth century. Like other needlework practices sseuch as sewing and cross stitch, quilting was associated with women’s work and the domestic sphere. However, it also allowed women to express their creativity, innovate new artistic forms, and sustain strong social bonds through quilting bees and sewing circles. Emily Esther Leslie created this quilt in Kingfield, Maine, during the late nineteenth century, a period of heightened experimentation in American textile arts. Here, Leslie has pieced together silk and velve t fabric and ribbon to create a “fancy” or “crazy” quilt, a popular style in the 1870s and 1880s. Embellished with silk embroidery and paint, Leslie’s quilt would have been admired as decoration and not used for warmth, reflecting her commitment to creating “art for art’s sake,” an attitude popularized by the Aesthetic Movement in the late nineteenth century.
Object Description
Victorian border 1880's color
silk & silk velvet
backing silk
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From: Sean Burrus <sburrus@bowdoin.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, October 28, 2020 10:28 AM
To: Laura Latman <llatman@bowdoin.edu>
Subject: Dating 2019.38
Hi Laura,
A class is planning to use 2019.38, our new ‘Fancy’ or ‘Crazy’ quilt, and so I reached out to Elizabeth Humphrey about the quilt as our resident expert in the period and learned she has done a little research into the possible dating. I’m sharing it here, and think it would be good to include in the record and update. Can you update the date range to 1880-1900, and add Elizabeth’s summary of her research to the notes?
This fancy quilt more appropriately termed a “crazy quilt,” resembles the colorful patchwork quilts of the late nineteenth century. They are comprised of patches of random swatches of fabric, varying in size, texture, color, and shape. Each crazy quilt is further embellished with embroidery stitches outlining the borders of each fabric swatch. Crazy quilts that incorporated silk and velvet fabrics often emerged later in the second half of the nineteenth century. Quilts made around the 1850s consisted primarily of cotton with an organized patterning and decoration. Furthermore, green-dyed textiles, which are liberally used in this quilt, became very popular in the latter half of the nineteenth century, which makes a creation date post 1850 more likely. The collector’s files also attribute the border fabric to the 1880’s. It was around the 1880’s when crazy quilts had more of a patchwork quality and incorporated borders and different fabrics such as silk and velvet. Several similarly designed crazy quilts exist in the Winterthur Museum and Colonial Williamsburg collections, dating between the 1880-1900. Having a creation date range of 1880s-1900 would account for the multiple years it took to both collect and stich the quilt together. Esther Emily Leslie (1859-1924) would have been between her 20s and early 40s when she produced this quilt. – Elizabeth Humphrey, 2020
Thanks!
S
—
Sean P. Burrus, Ph.D.
Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial Fellow
Bowdoin College Museum of Art
9400 College Station
Brunswick, Maine 04011
artmuseum.bowdoin.edu
207.725.3743
@seanpburrus
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