Recently, several friends alerted me about an eBay auction for a colorful New York Beauty Top. Quilt dealer Mark French of Yellow Springs, Ohio, was selling the top, and if you buy quilts on eBay, I'm sure you've seen his auctions. Mark is a prolific eBay seller known as french72, and I recall buying quilts from him in the past, including a 1940's blue, green and pink Chinese Fans variation on the New York Beauty pattern. He's always got a wide selection of reasonably priced quilts for sale. When I checked out his eBay shop, I found 430 items priced from $100 or less to just under $2900.
Of course, when I received the note about this quilt top, it was toward the end of the month and I wouldn't be able to pay for it for a week, but Mark was very willing to give me time to pay for it. As soon as December rolled around, we closed the deal and the top arrived in less than a week. I appreciated the great service, and shared information about my web site with Mark. He saw my collection of New York Beauties and variations on the pattern, and told me about a very cool Suspension Bridge quilt he had available, which I've purchased.
This New York Beauty quilt top has a circa date from the 1930's, but I still need to get out the "Dating Fabrics" book to identify the fabrics. It could be a time-span piece, and I'm thinking some of the fabrics could be a bit later.
One thing's for sure, it's a fabric lover's piece. This pattern wasn't often made with such a wide variety of fabrics until the last quarter of the 20th century, so finding such a scrappy example from the early-to-mid part of the 20th century is exciting. If it turns out to be later, that would be even more exciting for me, because I haven't found a lot of examples made between 1950 and 1990.
Two other characteristics make this top an intriguing find. One is the arched strip of lavender fabric from the inner part of each quarter circle. The second thing is the way the sashing is pieced as an interlocking sawtooth pattern. Both of these characteristics are uncommon and add visual interest to the piece. It is one of only three quilt tops I have in my "New York Beauty" collection, which now includes 30 examples from the mid 19th century to 2010.
Fantastic! I could get lost in all those fabrics...
ReplyDeleteThis quilt top is a stunner! I love the bold colors and scrappiness of it!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad it found a good home!
I think I haven't seen a 30s NYB before. Why ever not? It looks great. Love the wonkiness of it and it is so refreshingly pretty.
ReplyDeleteWith all those quilts and tops, you must have a specialized storage system. Have I missed it?
There are some '30's examples out there, but many of those are from published patterns and are quite streamlined compared to the earlier quilts. I've heard there was kind of a dead zone between the 40's and '80's with quilt making in America, and that included this pattern. It wasn't until the '90's when artists like Karen Stone revolutionized the pattern, leading the way for a whole new wave of quilts. I store my quilts in acid free archival boxes when possible, but still need to get more boxes. The ones that aren't in boxes are folded and stacked with not many in each pile. Since I show them around as much as possible, they are often refolded to avoid developing sharply creased fold lines.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fantastic quilt Bill! It is unusual to see this pattern from the 30's. How fun that YOU own it now!!
ReplyDeleteI've been exchanging comments with Roderick Kiracofe on Facebook, and he and I both think it is later than the 1930's. I'd been thinking 40's or 50's, and he thinks even later. It would be very exciting for me if it was later, because there was a long period of time that the quilt wasn't made very much. It was made in the 30's and 40's, but not often in the 50's through the 80's. He thinks it's somewhere in the 1960-1980 time period. Time to get a copy of Trestain's later period Dating Fabrics book.
ReplyDeleteFabulous quilt. I just found your blog and did a quick scan through. Can't wait till I have time to really read from the beginning and savor the wonderful close-ups of your collection.
ReplyDeleteWow! Love what the colors do in this quilt in a photograph! Colors in prints are always full of surprises from a distance! I'm sure glad I don't have to pick a favorite from your collection!
ReplyDeleteThis is a wonderful quilt-top...love how the lavender pulls it together while still allowing it do be scrappy. Quilt tops are great for fabric historians since most likely the fabrics have not been washed (much) and so still have most of their original colors.
ReplyDeleteConfectionarily exquisite. This scrapquilter aches for tops like this. Glad this was added to your collection. It found the perfect home. Nyima.
ReplyDeleteWonderful!!!
ReplyDeleteI MUST make one.