Quilt, Double X pattern
Soon after her marriage in the early 1890s, Rachel Moskovits moved from Cleveland to Lancaster, Ohio, a smaller city in the center of the state. According to her niece, the donor of this quilt, Mrs. Moskovits received it during the early days of her marriage as a gift from the wife of a local farmer. The family always supposed that it was given to her because her name matched the initials "R M" that appear on the quilt.
This is a simple quilt, but in its simplicity, it is an object of great beauty. The front and backing are of plain white cotton, and the diamond-set blocks and narrow zigzag borders are pieced with a dark blue cotton printed with a tiny white dot. The quilting is very fine, with a particularly beautiful feather-vine border that terminates at each of the corners in a feather wreath. In the lower right corner, the feather wreath contains the quilted inscription: "R M/1849."
The layout found in this quilt, with its blocks set as diamonds on point alternating with fancily quilted diamonds of plain fabric, and its wide feather-quilted border, was most often employed in the mid-nineteenth century by quilters of German descent. When viewed alongside other quilts in the Museum’s collection, this same overall design relates closely to the collection’s twentieth-century midwestern Amish quilts (1988.128; 2003.313).
This is a simple quilt, but in its simplicity, it is an object of great beauty. The front and backing are of plain white cotton, and the diamond-set blocks and narrow zigzag borders are pieced with a dark blue cotton printed with a tiny white dot. The quilting is very fine, with a particularly beautiful feather-vine border that terminates at each of the corners in a feather wreath. In the lower right corner, the feather wreath contains the quilted inscription: "R M/1849."
The layout found in this quilt, with its blocks set as diamonds on point alternating with fancily quilted diamonds of plain fabric, and its wide feather-quilted border, was most often employed in the mid-nineteenth century by quilters of German descent. When viewed alongside other quilts in the Museum’s collection, this same overall design relates closely to the collection’s twentieth-century midwestern Amish quilts (1988.128; 2003.313).
Artwork Details
- Title: Quilt, Double X pattern
- Date: 1849
- Geography: Probably made in Fairfield County, Lancaster, Ohio, United States
- Culture: American
- Medium: Cotton
- Dimensions: 81 1/8 x 84 3/4 in. (206.1 x 215.3 cm)
- Credit Line: Gift of Mrs. Emanuel Altman, 1962
- Object Number: 62.145
- Curatorial Department: The American Wing
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Multiple artists/makers
[1870]
J. Wright
ca. 1815
Emeline Travis Ludington
ca. 1850
Adeline Harris Sears
begun 1856
Sarah Furman Warner Williams
ca. 1803
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