Check quilt, or One-Patch quilt, unknown maker from the United States

Exhibition Label:
"Quilts: Flora Botanica," Jun-2008, Barbara Brackman and Susan Earle
Florals have long been the most popular imagery in printed cottons. The two block-printed fabrics in this early quilt were fashionable for clothing and furnishings. Naturalistic sprays and bouquets are arranged in a style fabric historians call “floral trails,” an arrangement imitating nature. The blossoms, however, are rather fanciful abstractions that may represent tulips, roses and carnations, Western ornament’s standard blooms.

When Sallie Casey Thayer donated this quilt, one of the oldest in her collection, she indicated that it had belonged to the family of founding father Alexander Hamilton. It is definitely old enough to have graced a bed in his home (Hamilton died after a duel with Aaron Burr in 1804) but there is no other evidence of that association.