Upholstered wingback commode chair has four turned Sheraton legs. Has replacement of original soiled handsewn homespun linen (remnants in this file), now an orange fabric with potted and vining flower design. Solid pinewood seat under cushion has center hole with fitted removable wooden disc.
This chair was from the Pownall home at Gap, where it was used by Dickinson Gorsuch, Maryland slaveholder, during his recovery from wounds sustained during the Christiana Riot of Sept. 11, 1851. His father and two others were killed during the skirmish at the home of freedman William Parker, and Dickinson was transported to the Pownall home for recovery. William Parker later published his story in the "Atlantic Monthly" in 1866, making it highly publicized.
This incident "is an important example of the struggle over the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act and the escalating tension between the North and the South. This act gave slave owners broad powers to recapture runaway slaves". (ExplorePAhistory.com)
Polaroid photos of chair before re-upholstery, in file.
Likely Lancaster or Chester Co.
Provenance
Provenance: Chair owned by the Pownall family & given in 1973 to the Lancaster County Historical Society by Mrs. Levi Pownall of Lancashire Hall (569-7279).
It was initially loaned to the Heritage Center (# L.77.9 and # 161.64.80) but soon donated to HCLC. Board minutes of Dec. 8, 1975 include Richard F. Smith's Museum Committee report noting a donation of a "Sheraton armed wing chair commode, used by the Pownall home in nursing Dickinson Gorsuch following Christiana Riot in 1851." Later unsigned note (Bruce Shoemaker?) states John Aungst of LCHS was consulted & chair was removed 11/9/84 from list on LCHS loan form, settling an apparent question of ownership.
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
Glazed soft paste porcelain handleless teacup (A) and saucer (B), Gaudy Dutch "Butterfly" pattern. Cup has nearly spherical shape and an applied foot ring. Decorated band of dark blue inside lip. Flower inside bottom. Outside as red butterfly set against elaborate floral design. Opposite side has a red flower above a decorated dark blue form.
12/12/2022: only cup
Provenance
Collected by Harpo and Susan Marx during visits back East from CA. Donated to Heritage Center.
Glazed soft paste porcelain handleless teacup (A) and saucer (B), Gaudy Dutch "Butterfly" pattern. Cup has nearly spherical shape and an applied foot ring. Decorated band of dark blue inside lip. Flower inside bottom. Outside as red butterfly set against elaborate floral design. Opposite side has a red flower above a decorated dark blue form.
12/12/2022: Only cup
Provenance
Collected by Harpo and Susan Marx during visits back East from CA. Donated to Heritage Center.
Glazed soft paste porcelain handleless teacup (A) and saucer (B), Gaudy Dutch "Double Rose" pattern. Cup has nearly spherical shape and an applied foot ring. Decorated band of dark blue inside lip. Flower inside bottom. Outside has reddish flowers and dark blue and green leaves. All sides have elaborate floral designs.
12/12/2022: only cup
Provenance
Collected by Harpo and Susan Marx during visits back East from CA. Donated to Heritage Center.
Glazed soft paste porcelain handleless teacup (A) and saucer (B), Gaudy Dutch "Double Rose" pattern. Cup has nearly spherical shape and an applied foot ring. Decorated band of dark blue inside lip. Flower inside bottom. Outside has reddish flowers and dark blue and green leaves. All sides have elaborate floral designs.
Only cup (12/12/2022)
Provenance
Collected by Harpo and Susan Marx during visits back East from CA. Donated to Heritage Center.
Glazed soft paste porcelain handleless teacup (A) and saucer (B), Gaudy Dutch "Adams Rose" pattern dominated by a large red flower as well as other flowers and leaves. Inside lip are two fine lines of rust. Cup has nearly straight sides, and attenuated base on an applied foot ring.
(B) Saucer has offcenter red flower surrounded by other flowers and leaves. Double line border at top of inside.
Provenance
Collected by Harpo and Susan Marx during visits back East from CA. Donated to Heritage Center.
(A) Cup has curved sides and foot ring. Sides dominated by one large orange/red flower composed of round clusters set atop a dark blue form. Additional flowers and leaves around sides. Wide band inside lip has small clusters of the same flower.
(B) Saucer of same pattern
Provenance
Collected by Harpo and Susan Marx during visits back East from CA. Donated to Heritage Center.
