Cotton quilt. On white ground are 9 large blocks delineated by sashing, a yellow print with a vine of red berries. Within each block is a geometric design made of overlapping strips of a red check print arranged like an angular lovers knot.
Back is white cotton with three inked stencils / prints on cloth in blue. First print has flowers with a bird and '30/2' ; the second print has scrollwork around a shield with 'Superior Longcloth' ; the third print has an ormate design around "CLYDEWORKS. BLEACH & FINISH / S.H. GREENE / PROVIDENCE R.I."
Quilt, Bars w/ Nine Patch Variation. Centerfield has 7 bars 10.5-11.5" wide; 4 have 9 Patch design, on point, and 3 have unpieced chintz. Chintz has aqua background with baskets of yellow and red, and flowers & leaves of teal, white, red, and yellow. Outer border, 10.5" wide, is royal blue and white with rows of blue bells and ferns.
Hand quilted with white thread using a grid pattern. Bound by joining back and front together at edge with running stitch. White coarse cotton back is 3 panels.
All cotton quilt, on point blocks have pieced 8-point star blocks that alternate with blocks of a woven pattern blue with a grid of white lines. Stars are small scale floral print of pink with tiny white flowers. White ground is a very loose weave composed of multiple pieced panels. White outside border is 11" wide on one end and 7.5" wide on the other three.
Hand-quilted with white thread in a small scale grid aligned with blocks.
Back is a loose weave arranged with wide strips of white alternating with strips of a large, bold red print of branches and large flowers. Six white strips are 8.5 - 9" wide; 5 printed strips and 7.5" wide. Back is brought forward to front to created binding. Thin battiing.
Inscription: On front quilt corner is "HM6? handwritten in ink.
Overall fading and deterioration, especially in pink floral print which is consistently riddled with small holes where white flowers have deteriorated. Some small holes in blue fabric, 1/8"-1/4" big with fraying. General soil, scattered stains and acid burn, especially at fold lines and borders, as well as sections of back..
Floral applique block quilt of cotton. Sixteen 15" floral applique blocks of flowers on white ground. Flowers have blooms of various greens & browns appliqued together to create two different designs that alternate block by block. Flowers branch out in curves with leaves of black & green print and intricate flower buds.
Sashing, 2.5" wide, separates blocks with white strips edged with thin green strips. Inner border of 1-inch wide brown strip encloses blocks. In large outer border of white with mitered corners are graceful grapevines of grape clusters, leaves of the same green & black print as leaves in centerfield,and tendrils of chain stitch embroidery. Wide red binding w/ mitered corners wraps to back and is hand stitched. White cotton back of four panels. Thin cotton batting.
Hand-quilted with a grid in centerfield except for bold cable that is superimposed on sashing and brown inner border. Outer border has slanting parallel lines. One distinctive round flower 2.5" in diameter with 10 petals is found in outer border near one corner, near edge.
Card originally sewn on quilt (handwritten in ink): "Quilt made by Rebecca Rynard of Line Lexington Penna. 90 yrs ago - it has taken many 1st prizes at the State Fairs in both Montgomery Co & Bucks Co - Penna." Below is "Property of M.D.S. Elwell 524 Cedar Lane Swarthmore(?)"
Provenance
Wheatland record states history of ownership is unknown between maker and donor. Research shows most Rynards lived in Cumberland Co.
Soil and multiple scattered stains overall, esp. on back. Significant holes on front. Wide binding is worn at edge and fraying. Many seams deteriorating and separated.
Pieced quilt of silks, cotton batting, glazed cotton back, cut in 2 halves, made by Quaker Deborah Simmons Coates, wife of Lindley Coates (1794-1856). Has 19 horizontal bands of dress silks (many produced by Harmonist Community) in alternating triangles arranged in Birds in the Air or Flying Geese pattern using the template method. Large triangles of varying patterns alternate with large triangles with 3 smaller appliqued triangles of contrasting patterns. Colors are browns, tans, beiges, electric and royal blue, peach and green. Each quilt half has a green silk binding on the three outside edges, and tan silk on the inner vertical cut edge. Quilting patterns are clamshell, diamond, cross in a square and diagonals.
At quilt center is a cream-colored triangle with an abolitionist stamp depicting a kneeling enslaved Black male in chains over the words: "Deliver me from the oppression/ of man." This stamped triangle was cut in two when quilt was divided; image now hidden by modern binding. According to Cuesta Benberry research, this image of a kneeling enslaved person originated with the English ceramic firm of Wedgwood in the late 1700s. See items 08.242 and 42.76.11 in the collectiosn of Metropolitan Museum of Art for seals with a similar motif. The Wedgwood family were ardent abolitionists, decorating various ceramics with this image, resulting in its rapid adoption by American anti-slavery groups. Used in many forms and media over the years, it remains the logo of the still-existing Pennsylvania Abolition Society and appears on organization's official publications.
Lindley and Deborah Coates, of West Grove, Chester Co., married there on 12/16/1819 but lived near Christiana in Sadsbury Twp., Lancaster Co. They attended Sadsbury Friends Meeting House near Christiana. Ardent abolitionists, their home was what is now designated station #5 on the Underground Railway. Lindley became President of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1840, before William Lloyd Garrison. Deborah Coates became a Hicksite Quaker minister according to historian Beverly Wilson Palmer. Hicksites were the more radical Quakers, named after leader Elias Hicks.
Provenance
Quilt passed to son Simmons (1821-1862) & wife Emeline Jackson. (Deborah Coates lived w/ widow Emeline on her Chester Co. farm (Evergreen Hall in West Grove) for many years following Simmon's 1862 death. See census records). Descent to their daughter Elizabeth Jackson Coates who married Marriott Brosius, U.S. congressman from Lancaster. The quilt was then divided between their two daughters, donor's maternal grandmother Graceanna Brosius Biddle and her sister Gertrude Coho Reinhartson. The two halves were then reunited when given to donor, Marjorie Ayars Laidman. Deborah S. Coates was donor's great great great grandmother.
Overall good condition. Two halves of quilt (with recent inside binding on cut edges) are "mounted" on cotton muslin, side-by-side. Silks show significant deterioration -- cracking, splitting and abrasion -- with some losses. Binding also has deterioration with some losses. (See 1985-86 condition report by conservator Linnea Davis.)
Documented in Quilt Harvest #448-B (records in Archives).
Object ID
G.86.05
Place of Origin
Sadsbury Twp.
Credit
Gift of Marjorie A. Laidman, Heritage Center Collection
