An antique quilt appeared on EBay about 2 months ago. It was described as “The Oldest Known Quilt in Western World”.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170471153874#description
The quilt is described as
HISTORY
AND RECORDED INFORMATION NOW ON FILE AT THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTE IN
WASHINGTON, DC
Made
by Hester Hosmer Buckingham (1641 - 1702) who was the wife
of Rev. Thomas Buckingham (1646 - 1709).Thomas Buckingham was one of the
seven men who founded the Collegiate School of Connecticut at Saybrook in 1701,
which later was named Yale College (now Yale University in New Haven,
CT). Amazing family history recorded with the quilt. It is still in the
possession of Thomas Buckingham’s 8th Great Grandson. This beautiful quilt
needs to be in the hands of someone who can continue the preservation of this
important piece of pre-American history.
Here
are some stats on the Hester Hosmer Buckingham quilt:
81
1/2" X 89"
Medallion-style,
center is Damask fabric, blue floral on brown ground (approx. 54 1/2"
wide). It has borders on 3 sides: 3" wide on top, 15" wide on the sides.
The border fabric is a brown & tan stripe, and each border has been pieced
in many pieces. It has been hand pieced.
The
back is 2 main pieces of a blue & white striped fabric that is homespun, as
the "stripes" range in widths from 1/4 - 1/2 inches wide, and the
stripes are not consistently straight. On the top edge, there is a 13"
border (pieced with 5 pieces), and one side a 3" border of a dark brown
wool, that is home-dyed and homespun. There is a binding that is approx.
1/2" wide (though not very consistent), that is mostly a green jacquard,
with a piece or two of a lavender fabric. The binding has been hand applied.
There
are several areas that have patches, and several areas that have repairs.
There are some rust stains.
There
are some loose seams, and holes in the dark brown fabric.
It
is hand quilted in an all-over pattern of large diamonds, approx. 5 stitches to
the inch.
I
would say the measurements above are close, but only approximate.
CONSIDERING
THE NATURE OF THIS NEWLY SURFACED TEXTILE, ONLY SERIOUS POTENTIAL BUYERS MAY
ARRANGE FOR THEIR OWN INSPECTION AND AUTHENTICATION UPON APPROVAL OF THE OWNER.
The starting bid price was astounding-almost $3,000,000.
Now when this was brought to our attention, we had two thoughts
·
If this
quilt was appraised at this price, why was it on EBay and not being auctioned
by one of the finer, qualified auction houses?
·
There
didn’t seem to be enough provenances provided to support the claim or the
price.
We were very happy to see a follow-up story on
Barbara Brackman’s blog “Material Culture” that provided some interesting incite
and information:
http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2010/06/oldest-known-quilt-reduced-by-millions.html
As the electronic media helps the quilt world come
together with blogs, websites, international friendships, local shop
information and a long list of advantages and offers, it also brings
interesting (and sometimes questionable) deals and opportunities.
There are wonderful quilt collecting offers on the
internet and we love to visit these sites and take our chance at adding
something to our personal collections. And while this particular offering may
indeed be a valuable piece of quilt history, we would hope to see it (and all of the quilts) offered and received at its true
value.
