For the benefit on non-historians, I thought that I would take a moment to explain some terminology. When I say that my specialty and area of interest is the 19th century, I mean the 1800s. People always think that 19th century means 1900s, but the 1900s are actually the 20th century. Likewise, the 18th century is the 1700s. That is confusing, I know.

In the seventeenth century (1692), they hung “witches” in Salem, Massachusetts, and crushed one man to death, who was presumed to be a witch. All were innocent, but were killed because of little girls who told lies. In the 21st century, the Taliban executed women in Arabic countries. It is a wonderful thing to live in the 21st century in America, where we are supposedly free from oppression. I say “supposedly” with a candid view that oppression does still exist for women in America, and sometimes the oppressors are other women, believe it or not!

Well, on the subject of time frames, let me get back on track here. I was in an antiques shop the other day and spotted a table with items of great interest to me. While I hate the idea of a “cutter” quilt, a dealer had taken apart a 19th century quilt that had a few turn of the century fabrics, (early 20th century fabrics, that is). She stated that the items for sale came from a 1930s quilt. That does not seem likely, unless the quilt had been made in the 1930s from an older scrap bag, and if she had clear provenance (knowledge of the background of an object). A quilt is always dated by the LATEST fabric included in it.

She has made two sided pincushions and was also selling detached squares (Hmmm … “detached squares” could be a good name for some of the people I unfortunately know, but that is another story altogether, ha, ha, ha!).

I couldn’t resist buying some pincushions, large and small, and a package of quilt squares. I had a little time tonight to edit a few of the photos that Jim took for me earlier today. I wanted to show you some fabrics and how distinctive authentic 19th century fabrics are. A trained eye can spot them right away.

In this square, you can see two Black and White prints. One is an all-over, geometric repeat; the other is a striped shirting print. Brown cotton fabrics were popular although many that we see in old quilts have disintegrated due to the iron mordants used in the dyeing process. In this square, we see a color of blue not made until shortly after 1870, called “Cadet Blue.” Stripes and plaid fabrics, and lots of geometric prints were popular in the late nineteenth century. Often floral designs are superimposed over lines and other there are background designs like pindots, etc. There is a “lot going on,” usually.

This half-square triangle unit is comprised of a fabric that features the Crescent Moon, a very popular motif and an ancient one, with specific meanings. The red and white calico is indicative of the red and white craze, seen also in Redwork embroidery within the last quarter of the nineteenth century. “Quarter” means 25 years, so if I say “last quarter, nineteenth century, I mean from 1875-1900. Redwork was most popular from 1890 on, and followed the Crazy Quilt trend of the 1880s.

This particular pincushion features Navy blue, a perennial and ancient color derived originally from dye from the Indigo plant. There is also a very distinctive gray color called “mourning gray.” The mourning and half-mourning fabrics were made so that women could denote their status as widows and the period of grief they were enduring. Victorian women followed the trend of Queen Victorian who mourned her dear Prince Albert forever after. In this pincushion, the pastel pink color stands out as a 20th century print. Pastel colors were not made until after the turn of the century and became most popular in the 1930s.

Now, all this talk about centuries brings to mind a poem by Emily Dickinson that is one of my favorites. I will provide the first and last verse of the poem, and if you are interested, you can hunt down the rest. There are six stanzas in all. The poem is numbered “712.”

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circa 1863 (“circa” generally means 10 years on either side of a specific date)

Have a great weekend!

Patricia Cummings