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Have you ever wondered how I arrive at an
estimate of a quilt's age? I receive requests regularly from people; on-line,
at museums, at quilt guild lectures and in workshops. I wrote an on-going
column for Traditional QuiltWorks magazine, dating quilts from photos the
readers sent in. Eventually I built a lecture around it. It is such a
popular topic!
Naturally people want to know about the
quilt they inherited from their family, bought or received from a friend who
"knew you liked old quilts." They ask me for the age, pattern and anything
else I can tell them about it. There is quite a lot quilts have to say- they
speak through their style, fabrics via the dyes and prints, their pattern,
quilting, binding, backing and other characteristics that might be in play
because of events and history in its day.
Roger Revell, and his family, has
generously given his permission to let me share his beautiful family quilt
and provenance with you to help illustrate the process I went through to
date his quilt. It's especially interesting because the provenance said one
thing and the quilt said another, which is a fairly common occurrence. It is
important to look at all the clues, and remain objective in the process.
Provenance handed down with the quilt 
I asked Roger to send a full shot of
the front and back of the quilt, another closer photo of the binding and
fringe, a close-up of the fabrics. He sent good quality pictures and
included three items of provenance, an exhibit ribbon, a family letter and a
newspaper article.
The quilt was passed down through Budd
A. Revell’s mother's side  of the family who believed it was made in Scotland
around 1774. A letter was attached to the quilt and a newspaper article was
written about it dated 1934. From these I gleaned the following: the quilt
came to America in a wedding chest. No dates and other information were
remembered by the family the note says. Leila Mae (Budd) Revell (a.k.a. Mrs. I. C. Revell) received the quilt around 1934 from her mother, Nellie Mc Beth
Budd.
Mrs. I.C. Revell entered the quilt into
the Shenandoah (Iowa) Quilt show in 1934, six months after she received the
quilt. Counting backwards from 1934 gave the 1869 date; Nellie said she had
the quilt for 65 years before passing it down to her daughter, who passed it
down to her son Budd, and his son Roger made the inquirey to me. 
The Revell family sent a photo of the
ribbon the quilt received in the Iowa show for being the oldest quilt in the
1934 exhibit, and the newspaper article written about it, which also
recorded the number of pieces in the quilt at 5316, and that it was 160
years old. This is how the year 1774 was actually obtained.
 Upon seeing the first picture of the
quilt my mind went immediately to the well-known c. 1830 Rising Star quilt
in the Smithsonian collection in Washington
D.C. At once the early date,
1774 and country of origin were in question. Here is the report I sent to
him and his family. It proved to resonate with them and answered their
questions. The report will stay with their elegant quilt as it continues its
journey in their family. (To see the largest size,
disable auto image resizing, found in your Internet Explorer menu, under
Internet Options, Advanced, Multimedia section. Uncheck the box.)
Quilt Evaluation for Roger Revell
"Roger,
Your quilt is a pattern that usually
goes by the name Star of Bethlehem, named for the large pieced star in the
middle; this quilt is also called Rising Star when the corner and triangle
blocks are further decorated with appliqué and smaller stars like yours.
Stars and biblical references are common from the earliest years of quilting
in America continuing to this day. There is a quilt in the Smithsonian
Museum in Washington D.C. that is similar to yours, except that yours is
also symbolic of America due to the eagles in the border areas. Their's was
made in New York, c. 1830 and you can see it here:
http://tinyurl.com/6odnxe
The patriotic eagle was seen on quilts
after the Revolutionary War, when the bald eagle was chosen as our national
bird in the 1782 for our National Seal. But it wasn't adopted as such until
1787 http://tinyurl.com/5l2lm9 However, NY used it in their state's seal as
early as 1778. Before becoming a Federal symbol, the eagle stood for
strength and authority.
The star placed above the eagle's head
also reflects patriotism. Stars arching above or below an eagle often
represented the number of states in the Union at the time it was made.
However since there are only four, we can't use the number to estimate the
time of origin.
Here's another quilt
http://tinyurl.com/6rwakh
that could fall under the name Rising Sun or Star of Bethlehem, with
appliqués of birds and flowers decorating the corners. It is dated c. 1850.
The picture is blurry, but I share it because it is another example for you
to see that quilts like yours date in the 19th century, not the 18th
century.
http://tinyurl.com/6mba8n This is a
later version of the Star of Bethlehem. Scroll down and you will see
close-ups of the fabrics. Notice the green on green, a similar fabric is in
yours. The color is called acid green, or poison green. First seen in quilts
in the 1830s and we usually date a quilt it's in it from about 1840 thru the
1880s. It was made using both an indigo blue dye and a yellow dye, which
were put onto the fabric separately. When one begins to fade, the fabric may
appear more like the remaining dye, more blue or more yellow. Also notice
the simple border on this quilt.
The fabrics in your quilt are another
clue to its age. You have the acid green on the flower's leaf in the scan
you sent, the antimony orange, roller printed brown in the flower and
border, and printed plaids, on your quilt they are brown and white. One sees
these colors in quilts that date to the 1840s-60s. They are roller prints,
not block prints. The roller printer had not been invented in 1774, only
block printed fabrics were available, and copperplate prints, but they did
not make tiny prints like these. The solid orange and the brown seaweed
print could have been made in the late 1820s and 1830s. Some of the dyes
were not discovered until the 19th century, as well as the types of prints.
The quilting stitches appear to be on
the diagonal, spaced apart about ½" to 1". They cover the entire quilt top.
This is not usually an early quilt pattern when it is the only stitching
over the entire top, indicates the mid-19th century. It was more common in
sections of a quilt or when all over, after the Civil War. If there are
other quilt stitches patterns, let me know, the photos may not be helpful in
this way.
A simple border as on your quilt, with
a white strip inside of two dark strips, as the complete border, came into
use later in the century with appliqué quilts, early would be in the 1850s.
Its use increases in the 1860s, and 1870s and continues on.
Fringe on quilts is very uncommon, at
any time in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. The type of fiber would be
helpful to know, wool, linen, silk or cotton. It could have been added at a
later time, there is no way to know for sure, especially from the photos,
but the binding it is attached to is whiter than the quilt, and looks newer
because of that. If the entire fringe trim is made with cotton threads, then
very late 18th century but more likely 19th century or later would be
indicated. Wool, silk and linen would also be used earlier.
To be sure, I looked through all the
books I have from Great Britain or about GB that discuss and show their
quilts. I didn't see Star of Bethlehem or Rising Star quilts in them, nor
did I see eagles appliquéd in the outer border areas. There is almost no
mention of Scotland and quilts, or pictures. Scotland was known for
establishing a Turkey red dyeworks factory in 1785; exporting them around
the world in the 19th century, operating until the 1940s. (Turkey red
fabrics were the red colorfast fabric available early on and therefore
expensive until after the Civil War when it was made here.)
My impression of your quilt is that it
was made in the United States, eastern states, possibly Pennsylvania or New
York. Due to the fabrics and quilting pattern, I would date it to sometime
between 1840 and 1870. It's not unusual for one generation to make a quilt
top and another generation to finish the top, or even begin to quilt it and
then another daughter finish quilting it, and in this case, adding fringe
after the quilting is done. The quilting pattern of all-over straight
diagonal lines says later in the time period.
The lack of a more elaborate border
strikes me as odd, unfinished. I doubt the maker had fringe in mind when she
was making the top, but it doesn't appear to be pieced on the back, as if
the small borders were added, so the border was added before it was backed.
The fabrics are from this time, 1840-70, and the Star of Bethlehem has been
made throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Stars in the corners are not
uncommon, but tend to be seen in earlier quilts. They are made again in the
20th century, but these are usually made with solid fabrics, not prints.
If you have any questions, let me know.
As many many family stories turn out to be, this one was romanticized it
seems, to say it came over the ocean in a wedding chest. I think it came
over a hill or two instead, but here in the eastern US. It is however,
special enough to have been made in honor of a wedding mid-19th century.
Thank you for sharing your quilt with
me,
Kim Wulfert" |
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Kimberly Wulfert, PhD. Absolutely no copies, reprints, use of photos or text are
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