Medallion quilt, Bandanna with Four-Patch quilt, unknown maker from the United States

Exhibition Label: "Quilts! Imported Fabrics, American Treasures," May-2004, Barbara Brackman This quilt is of a type known as a medallion or framed center quilt. Today, the patchwork in a simple triangular design is called “Broken Dishes” and the squares are known as “Four-Patches.” The pieced designs frame a handkerchief printed in England about 1820, which illustrates the habits of schoolboys, good and bad. The blue and white monochrome print from which most of the large squares are cut was printed on the relatively new roller-print presses at the mill of John Marshall in Manchester, the heart of England’s cotton printing industry. Marshall, in business from 1818 to 1824, was one of the first printers to manufacture cheaper roller-printed substitutes for the labor-intensive plate textiles. Most of the fabrics in this quilt were printed by the copper roller method, still used today. The extremely efficient roller technology allowed printers to include a number of different colors in each fabric, but the monochromatic look was so fashionable that the limited palette of copperplate style continued. Archive Label: This quilt uses outstanding examples of early nineteenth-century textiles, including copperplate and roller-printed monochrome chintzes made with new mineral dyes that were replacing previously used vegetable dyes. It also includes pillar print chintzes and calicoes in lapis, manganese brown, and blue resist prints. The center block was made from a bandana depicting English school life at the turn of the century, complete with a moral lesson on the virtues of diligence, piety, and hard work.