Tree of Life Whitework Quilt179692 1/4 × 87 3/4"Cotton and linen with cotton fringeGift of Cyril Irwin Nelson in honor of Joel and Kate Kopp1997.16.10White stuffed-work coverlet, Tree of Life in stuffed-work. Fringe all around - missing at top center. whole cloth1537342250P1.1995.007Artist unidentifiedTextilesThe American Folk Art Museum believes this work to be in the public domain. dated 1796 United StatesTextileseMuseum - Collection Highlightswhole clothThe raised patterns on this bedcover were created by stuffing and cording, a technique that is sometimes called “trapunto work”—a reference to a possible Italian origin for the tradition. In order to create the elaborate motifs seen here, the seamstress could add the extra padding either before or after her regular quilting. The designs on elegant whitework bedcovers such as this are usually based on a central medallion format and include motifs that may be derived from Indian palampores and/or Jacobean embroidery, such as Tree of Life and other fruit and floral designs.
Stacy C. Hollander, "Tree of Life Whitework Quilt," exhibition label for QUILTS: Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum. Stacy C. Hollander, curator. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2010.
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art Museum welcomes additional information.
To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.orgThis is the earliest dated quilt in the Museum’s collection. It shows a strong reliance upon the graceful Tree of Life motif introduced into quilts through painted and block-printed Indian cotton bedcovers called palampores, which were imported into Europe by the seventeenth century.The date of 1796 that appears in cording at the bottom of this quilt places it at the beginning of the American vogue for all-white bedcovers and soon after Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin. This simple machine, perhaps more than any other innovation, revolutionized the production of cotton in the southern United States. At a moment when the paradox of slavery in a new nation founded on freedom was being hotly debated, greatly increased cotton growing and processing reinvigorated the need for manual labor, provided through the muscle of slaves. But the production of cotton cloth would become a major domestic industry only after Samuel Slater built his first cotton yarn factory in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, which made possible the industrial spinning of cotton yarn that was strong enough to be woven into cloth. Before then, whiteworks might be fashioned from cloth with a linen warp and cotton weft.P1.1995.00717961796 1997 16 1 whole clothThe raised patterns on this bedcover were created by stuffing and cording, a technique that is sometimes called “trapunto work”—a reference to a possible Italian origin for the tradition. In order to create the elaborate motifs seen here, the seamstress could add the extra padding either before or after her regular quilting. The designs on elegant whitework bedcovers such as this are usually based on a central medallion format and include motifs that may be derived from Indian palampores and/or Jacobean embroidery, such as Tree of Life and other fruit and floral designs.
Stacy C. Hollander, "Tree of Life Whitework Quilt," exhibition label for QUILTS: Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum. Stacy C. Hollander, curator. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2010.
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art Museum welcomes additional information.
To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.orgThis is the earliest dated quilt in the Museum’s collection. It shows a strong reliance upon the graceful Tree of Life motif introduced into quilts through painted and block-printed Indian cotton bedcovers called palampores, which were imported into Europe by the seventeenth century.The date of 1796 that appears in cording at the bottom of this quilt places it at the beginning of the American vogue for all-white bedcovers and soon after Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin. This simple machine, perhaps more than any other innovation, revolutionized the production of cotton in the southern United States. At a moment when the paradox of slavery in a new nation founded on freedom was being hotly debated, greatly increased cotton growing and processing reinvigorated the need for manual labor, provided through the muscle of slaves. But the production of cotton cloth would become a major domestic industry only after Samuel Slater built his first cotton yarn factory in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, which made possible the industrial spinning of cotton yarn that was strong enough to be woven into cloth. Before then, whiteworks might be fashioned from cloth with a linen warp and cotton weft.