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
Watercolor of bird, fraktur-type, done for an Amish female, attributed to Amish artist.
Bird perched in stylized tree, done on plain off-white wove paper. The tree has one main trunk with five small, arching branches terminating in a globular yellow fruit. Uppermost branch ends in a tulip. Three gray-blue leaves attach to trunk. Bird has yellow body decorated with inked texture marks, brown head and wings and gray-blue beak.
Inscriptions: At bottom right in inked German script is "May 1848." At upper left, written sideways in the same hand is "Fannie Hochstetler/ 1848/ Nannie H. Beiler/ 1896.
Mounted in brown paper window mat and frame (likely by sellers for sale). Frame is flat softwood with half-lap, mitered joints and paint-decorated with a dark glaze over a medium-brown ground. Hanging ring at top. (Written by Wendell Zercher)
Provenance
According to sellers' research this may have been a gift to Fannie Hochstetler in 1848, after which she may have married and become "Nannie H. Beiler." Gingerich and Krieder record a Veronica/Fannie/Franey Hostetler (HS5362) (1840-1914) of Mifflin County who married John K. Byler (BY3566) (1831-1904) also of Mifflin Co. Thus, the Earnests are suggesting the sideways description may have been added later than the original 1848 inscription at bottom.
Bought from Russell Earnest & Associates, Nov. 2, 2001, for $1300.00.
Paper has bee trimmed, probably on all four sides. Multiple fold lines with a cluster at upper left corner, a horizontal one at 2 and 2/1 inches from bottom and a vertical one at 1 7/8 inches from right edge. Moderate to heavy soiling, especially above May 1848 date. Upper left cover has minor loss all corners have paste and remnants of paper where previously attached.
Drawing has slid askew since earlier photo. It would be easy to fix. (MAW)
Fraktur-style birth certificate for Heinrich F. Eshbach done on white, rectangular paper with a vertical orientation. Drawn in pen and ink and decorated with polychrome paints in a nearly symmetrical design. From and layout suggest influence of Samuel Bentz and other fraktur artists.
Framing the text block at the sides are two columns decorated w/ vining plant with berries growing out of plinths and rising to the top where six ball shapes are arranged in horizontal design. Below the text block is a large central flower flanked by a pair of smaller flowers. Below these is a very unusual butterfly with hairy wings and feet and a face. The painting is handled inexpertly in a sloppy fashion and unevenly applied. Color are blue, red, green and a brownish yellow.
The text block is in German and state that Heinrich F. Eschbach was born the 29th of September, 1854, in Lancaster Twp., Lancaster County, to his parents Christian and Anna Eschbach. The last three lines appear to be a religious blessing or Bible verse....
The text is done in iron gall ink in a somewhat uneven hand. To nearly every downstroke of each letter, the penman has a a diagonal tail of double pen strokes giving the effect of shading or shadowing.
Original wood back on revers has the signature "Benjamin C. Eshbach" written in ink of adhesive tape.
Provenance
Acquired by Bd. of Trustees for HCLC in memory of Gladys Jane Swift Seibert. From Steven F. Still Antiques, Elizabethtown, PA, for $2000.00. Received July 1, 2001.
Paper is buckled (especially at top) and somewhat embrittled. Significant soiling at top in vertical streaks. Multiple stains/foxing overall, darkest stains at perimeter, including a moisture stain at bottom right corner. Accretions from frame attached to top edge and left edge. Original wood back board replaced with common matboard (acid-free tissue used as buffer). Frame has original finish which is nicked and scratched in many places, most significantly at center of right member and a large scratch to right of center on bottom member.
3/4 profile bust charcoal portrait of man facing viewer. He is wearing a dark jacket with wide lapels with trimmed edges; a white shirt with stand-up collar and a bow tie.
Back: "Jacob Gruel / Confectioner / N. Queen St near Chestnut / for 60 years / at N. N. Queen St. entrance to / the Colonial Theater / grandparents of Mrs. Edgar Fahs Smith / provost of U. of P."
Written on back:" 576-P" and number "18."
Note: Jacob J. Gruel (1809-1882) married Jacobina Swartz (1811-1892).
3/4 profile bust charcoal portrait of woman wearing amulet clasp at center of neckline with white collar. Four buttons are visible down front of her bodice. Her hair is parted in the center. There appear to be ribbon/folds over her left ear with hint of fabric on top of her head and along right side like a bonnet or hair-covering on back of her head. She is looking left, eyes skyward. Back: "Mrs. Jacobina Gruel" written cursively in pencil on back.
Drawing, attached to cardboard, is brown overall. Lighter border from frame that has been removed.
(Note: Jacob J. Gruel (1809-1882) married Jacobina Swartz (1811-1892)
Image of Trinity Lutheran Church. 1800's. New brick facade, wrought iron grate/fence surrounding building's sides. Steeple now integrated with building's face.
Declaration of Independence and Portraits of the Presidents
Description
Rectangular print, scrolled foliate background with horseshoe array of 15 Presidents (busts in oval medallions) from Washington (top center) to Buchanan (bottom right). In center is copy of Declaration Committee and Continental Congress above copy of Dec
