Crazy quilt made of velvet, silk, ribbon and floss. Eight-inch wide dark green lustrous border has mitered corners and embroidered morning glory vines on three sides (lavender, green, yellow). Center has a wide variety of crazy patches of silk, satin, velvet, ribbon, solids and prints.
Some patches are painted and some have embroidered motifs. Embroidered decoration includes snowflakes, vines, zig-zags, etc. Unusual that most decorative embroidery stitches run alongside seams and not on top. Quilt is decorated and secured with bows of dark purple ribbon ties. Many patches have been "repaired" with an overlay of fabric due to deterioraton.
Some fabrics shredding, one nearly bare showing white foundation fabric underneath. Multiple repairs to deteriorated patches by applying an overlay of additional fabric. Some staining on back.
Object ID
W.1961.015.001
Notes
Reportedly made by donor's grandmother or great-grandmother from swatches of ladies' gowns made to be worn at James Buchanan's 1857 inaugural ball. Card in file states: Donor's "grandmother or great grandmother was on her honeymoon at that time and a friend, the dressmaker who made many of the ball gowns, gave her the scraps of material for a quilt as a memory of the occasion coupled with her honeymoon." At the end of note are two names, Mrs. Michael D. Smyser (Magdalene) and Mrs. Howard Overmiller (Helen), of Spring Grove in York Co. Relationship is unexplained. Helen Menges Baer Overmiller lived 1898-1975. Magdalene Smyser was much older, 1847-1924.
Sideboard. Heavy, lion-paw feet at front. Free pillars at side with ionic capitals. Bottom 2/3 rounded at front sides with two drawers each side, top one shallower than other with keyhole surround and cut-glass knobs. Two central doors with central panel
Purchased by Frederick Wolf at public sale at Wheatland at time of James Buchanan's death (exact date unknown). Passed to step-grandchild, Mabel Bair, on his death. Purchased by Rorhbaughs in 1974 from estate of Mabel Bair.
Redware canning jar, ovoid shape with no handle. Pronounced foot ring and rounded flaring lip with recessed interior to receive a fitted lid (missing). Dark brown manganese decoration with some mottling, streaks and dark spatters. Lead glaze overall except for underside.
Very strong wear with losses. Lip has very large chip and one very small chip at outside edge. Strong losses of glaze at lip. Very strong abrasions at salient point of side, with considerable scattered scratches. Foot ring has three large chips and one very large chip. Soil on inside and underside.
Object ID
G.99.22.1
Place of Origin
Pennsylvania
Credit
Gift of Drs. Irwin and M. Susan Richman, Heritage Center Collection
Figure of a woman with brown hair wearing an ochre broad-rimmed hat, long-sleeved, full-skirted dress painted blue-green with ochre trim on bodice only, and unpainted pantaloons with black shoes. She is also holding a hankerchief in her right hand and flowers in her left hand. Square plinth with clipped corners is lightly dabbed with tannish-brown. Back side is inpainted.
Inscription inside base is pencilled "PRC".
Provenance
Collected by Harpo and Susan Marx in Pennsylvania during their visits back East from CA. Donation to the Heritage Center.
Moderate soiling and paint loss. Small chips throughout; large loss on back right corner of base. Mended break in the left skirt. Several paint splatters on skirt front.
Object ID
G.98.51.75
Place of Origin
Pennsylvania
Credit
Given in memory of Harpo by Susan Marx, Heritage Center Collection
Trinket box of softwood constuction covered by German newsprint outside and a coarse blue-green paper inside. Glued over the newsprint are strips of straw of various tones arranged in geometrical designs on domed lid and sides in a technique very similar to marquetry. Newsprint visible on underside as well as where straw pieces are missing. Lid has hinge of coarse linen under laminate. Bent wire hook on lid fits into wire loop on box front.
Provenance
Collected by donor in Lancaster Co. According authority Clarke Hess, these boxes are plentiful, but not usually with newspaper lining. Clarke owns two of these boxes, both with Lancaster German language newsprint, and believes these boxes were made 1820-1840 in PA.
John Tannehill, expert in iron, reports someone told him these boxes were made in prisons.
Log cabin quilt made of plain- and twill-weave wools. Quilt top composed of 156 log cabin blocks, 12 across and 13 down. Each block ( 6 1/2" square) is composed of 3/4"-wide logs with a central square of orange-red surrounded by brown and blue strips with the colors separated diagonally. Blocks are arranged in a Barn Raising pattern of concentric diamonds of blue and brown.
Three blue fabrics (2 twill & 1 plain) and two brown fabrics used. Brown twill is used through center areas and darker plain-weave brown in periphery. One corner block strongly varies by substituting a sheer camel brown instead of the darker browns, creating an anomaly. (Donor states this indicates a Quaker quilt).
The 0.25"-wide blue binding uses two wool fabrics, a coarse knit on three sides and a twill on the 4th side. Wool backing is a small-scale geometric print of browns.
Numerous small areas of stain, soil and holes. Some holes are large, e.g. 1.25" x .375", likely moth damage. Some of these holes are in the brown twill w/ lighter, heavier weft destroyed leaving the thin, darker warp threads).
Object ID
G.08.17.03
Place of Origin
Pennsylvania
Credit
Gift of Joanna S. Rose, Heritage Center Collection
Hand-done B&BC on wove paper is torn and pieces attached to a larger, light brown paper with 5 straight pins. Tall columns with molded caps on top, in turn with round balls on top. Table-saw-like motif at top center is a circle divided in quarters of red and yellow, with a fringe of small slanting leaves.At bottom is a flowering plant. This decoration resembles that of Samuel Bentz.
Text block filling center is hand-printed German in black ink, copying the form of a printed B&BC with spaces for someone to infill later. Title at top is in red: "Geburts und Tauf Schein." and next line is in blue: "Diesen beyden Ehegatten als." Curlicues trail off the tops of the "ascenders" of letters in the first several lines. Blanks of this form infilled with very faded red scrawled script. A daughter was born 22 Dec? 1823. Names and places uncertain.
Paper onto which fraktur is mounted is H: 13 W: 11
Condition
Poor
Condition Date
2017-10-03
Condition Notes
Paper is pliable but soiled with blotches of brown staining, some very large. Colors faded. Much of fraktur is missing, esp. upper left and lower left. Large section of upper right corner torn off and pinned in place next to main section. Both fraktur and esp. paper onto which it is mounted are irregularly cut with many wrinkles, folds and tears.