Four Quilts from The Esprit Collection

Crib Quilt was once part of the Esprit Collection

My collection has a connection to Esprit. Following the arrival of the quilt featured in yesterday's blog, I realized I had four quilts that were once part of the Esprit Collection. Two are Amish, and both are unusual examples because of size. The other two are high-style quilts made from the pattern known as New York Beauty, and both are exceptionally high quality.

The Esprit Collection, curated by Julie Silber for many years, originated when Doug and Susie Tompkins owned Esprit and decided to decorate the headquarter with quilts. The richly saturated colors and bold, broad patterns in Amish quilts seemed symbiotic with the Esprit clothing line. The collection is best known for richly saturated Amish quilts, many of which are now part of the Heritage Center Museum of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Over the years, the emphasis of the collection evolved, and occasional deaccessions allowed a few lucky collectors to get a small piece of Esprit.

I may be one of the luckier ones. Although four quilts is not a lot, I think the quality more than makes up for lack of quantity. Both of the Amish quilts came from a California eBay seller who had bought them from Susie Tompkins years earlier. There were a few others for sale at the time, but I couldn't afford all of them, so I decided to go for the two small quilts.

Trundle size Tumbling Blocks quilt

I think it was a good choice. When I flipped through "Amish: The Art of the Quilt" and "The Esprit Quilt Collection" catalog, I didn't see pictures of any crib or trundle quilts. I'll have to read through the collection notes more carefully to see how many crib and trundle quilts they had. My guess is not many. The larger, mostly square quilts worked well on the large, exposed brick walls at Esprit. They commanded the space.

Together again!

Most quilt people know about the Esprit Amish quilts, and many have also heard about how the collection evolved toward "Maverick" quilts. What you may not know is Susie Tompkins has also collected classic, masterpiece quilts. These two "New York Beauty" quilts were both part of her collection, and happily, they're still together in my collection.