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CRAZY QUILT: 72"x76", c.1880-90's, Black Velvet Border.
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CRAZY QUILT: 72"x76", c.1880-90's, Black Velvet Border.
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From Steve Kane Quilts and Folk Art - AN AMERICAN MASTERPIECE "CRAZY QUILT with BLACK VELVET BORDER" Made in the Last Quarter of the Nineteenth Century. Found in New England. DOUBLE Size: approx. 72 inches by 76 inches. Various Silks and Satins. Elaborate, colorful stitchery and embroidery. Violet Backing. Excellent Condition. "Good Housekeeping" Magazine of October 25, 1890 printed the poem "THE CRAZY QUILT" which rhymed to the tune of the "Star Spangled Banner": "...O'er the bed where you slept was so saucily steaming; The silk patches so fair, Round, three-cornered and square Gives proof that the lunatic bed-quilt is there. Oh, the crazy-quilt mania triumphantly raves, And maid, wife and widow are bound as its slaves." The random, irregular pattern of the "CRAZY QUILT" has been associated with the scarcity of cloth in the American Colonies and with the outsider art of residents of insane asylums, but it is the artistic influence of newly introduced Japanese imports in the mid-Nineteenth Century that was responsible for an aesthetic revolution in which Orientalism and asymmetry became primary. "Crazy" came from a corruption of the "Crazed" or "Crackle" Glazes of the highly evolved techniques of Japanese ceramicists. Other decorative arts exhibited "Puzzle Patchwork" and mixed patterns and materials for effect. The 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition featured the Asian imports and the "Fancywork" which they spawned following the lead of the 1862 London International Exhibition. The abandonment of geometric, mosaic quilt patterns in the "Crazy Quilt" meant that the artistic possibilities of odd shapes were combined with embroidery, needlework, perforated patterns, hot iron transfers, ribbons, beads, painted designs and more to create an "Art Quilt Movement" that would stand in stark contrast to the Euclidian "Arts & Crafts Movement" that would overwhelm it in both the U.S. and England before the end of the Century. The BLACK VELVET BORDERED CRAZY QUILT is a "Segmented Crazy Quilt" with individual crazy patches attached by a decorative embroidery stitch to each other. As the "Crazy Quilt" poem states: "There is Kensington-stitch In designs that are rich, Snow-flake, arrasene, point russe and all sich." There are many small embroidered attachments such as Flowers, and of course the central focus of a small circular medallion. The jewel-tone colors of the various shiny fabrics are reminiscent of the colors of stained glass which Tiffany had reinvigorated at this time. The affluent, urban Quilt Maker used the luxurious fabrics with which she dressed herself and her household to make her artistic statements. And as the poem continues: "But make it she must, She will do it or bust, Beg, swap, and buy pieces, or get them on trust. Oh, the crazy-quilt mania, may it soon cease to rave In the land of the free and the home of the brave." For the complete poem SEE "Crazy Quilts," by Penny McMorris, 1984, E.P. Dutton, and for a discussion on "Care" via the Smithsonian, Division of Textiles read Pages 115-116, ibid. There is some fading in the fold areas of the violet Backing, but the front, pattern side is unblemished as far as I can see. The beautiful spectrum of colors and patterns is wonderfully framed and contained in the black Border. VISIT MY eBAY STORE TO VIEW MORE ANTIQUE AMERICAN QUILTS AND OTHER FOLK ART ITEMS. Code: CR 4
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