Lot Essay
Although the album quilt phenomenon was popular throughout the eastern United States from the mid-1830s through the mid-1850s, the best examples of this form are most closely associated with the city of Baltimore. Ranging in their aesthetic roots from the more delicate broderie perse tradition of late 18th century Philadelphia to the boldly colored abstract and animal art forms of the Pennsylvani Germans, Baltimore Album Quilts also achieved a wide scope in terms of quality in design and execution. The distinguishing characteristics of the more superlative examples of thisform include multiply overlaid appliqued flowers, delicately reticulated baskets, rainbow fabrics cut and applied to reinforce the dimension of the design, and frequently the use of a triple bow-knot motif. These features have previously been attributed toMary Evans Ford, a professional needleworker living in the Fell's Point area of Baltimore; recent scholarship, however, and the reappearance of the original quilt squares on which the attribution was base, has suggested other sources of this work than Mary Evans.
While album quilts are frequently thought to have been made to commemorate either a departure from a community or a wedding, an examination of period documents does not support this traditional conclusion. The center square of this quilt is inscribed with the names "John and Rebecca Chamberlain," and dated 1848. Baltimore City Directory listings from the years 1847 to 1860 show John Chamberlain was an established shoemaker at 285 West Pratt Street, between the Camden Train Station and the harbor, for a least thirteen years. This stability is in direct contrast to the majority of other contemporary artisans in Baltimoremany of whose addresses changed with each annual city directory. In addition to Chamberlain's long standing within his community, the 1850 Maryland Census shows Chamberlain was married several years at the time of the quilts' presentation to him and his wife. Aged 37 at the time of the census, Chamberlain and his wife Rebecca, 34, were natives of Maryland, and had five children: John, aged 10, Mary 4., aged 7; Elizabeth, aged 5; George W., aged 2; and Edward B., aged 3 months. Potentially relevant to the fabrication of this quilt, the Chamberlains' next door neighbour, Frederick Aberly, was a tailor.
As an active and important port city, Baltimore was recipient to internationally imported goods. Early 19th century merchants' newspaper advertisements show that among the most prized and heavily imported items were a wide variety of richly printed and patterned textiles from both England and France. These fabrics provided not only the material with which Baltimore's famous album quilts were made, but also may have provided the design source on which some ofthe applique patterns were based. Accordingly, an album quilt inscribed, "...Presented to Mrs. lipscomb by Mrs. L.F. Michalson/March 16th/Baltimore 1847..." with rose and meandering double-vine printed chintz border (illustrated Sienkiewicz, p. 71, fig. 4-34) may be the source on which the identical appliqued border was based of the 1848 quilt illustrated here. This same quilt, now in the collection of The United Methodist Historical Society, Lovely Lane Museum, bears further relation to the Chamberlain quilt in the presence oftwo identical quilt squares, including a holly wreath enclosed bird and a compote of fruit, as well as an almost identically arranged garland-bible-and bird square.
Several other album quilts are also related to the Chamberlain quilt in their shared composition of squares on the whole quilt. Both the Chamberlain album quilt, an example exhibited in the Museum of American Folk Art (see Sienkiewicz, p. 53, fig. 4-17), and a quilt made for Mary Sliver of Baltimore in 1849, share the same interior arrangement of squares including a central garlanded motif framed at each corner by a garland wreath and on the sides by a reticulated basket of flowers.
While album quilts are frequently thought to have been made to commemorate either a departure from a community or a wedding, an examination of period documents does not support this traditional conclusion. The center square of this quilt is inscribed with the names "John and Rebecca Chamberlain," and dated 1848. Baltimore City Directory listings from the years 1847 to 1860 show John Chamberlain was an established shoemaker at 285 West Pratt Street, between the Camden Train Station and the harbor, for a least thirteen years. This stability is in direct contrast to the majority of other contemporary artisans in Baltimoremany of whose addresses changed with each annual city directory. In addition to Chamberlain's long standing within his community, the 1850 Maryland Census shows Chamberlain was married several years at the time of the quilts' presentation to him and his wife. Aged 37 at the time of the census, Chamberlain and his wife Rebecca, 34, were natives of Maryland, and had five children: John, aged 10, Mary 4., aged 7; Elizabeth, aged 5; George W., aged 2; and Edward B., aged 3 months. Potentially relevant to the fabrication of this quilt, the Chamberlains' next door neighbour, Frederick Aberly, was a tailor.
As an active and important port city, Baltimore was recipient to internationally imported goods. Early 19th century merchants' newspaper advertisements show that among the most prized and heavily imported items were a wide variety of richly printed and patterned textiles from both England and France. These fabrics provided not only the material with which Baltimore's famous album quilts were made, but also may have provided the design source on which some ofthe applique patterns were based. Accordingly, an album quilt inscribed, "...Presented to Mrs. lipscomb by Mrs. L.F. Michalson/March 16th/Baltimore 1847..." with rose and meandering double-vine printed chintz border (illustrated Sienkiewicz, p. 71, fig. 4-34) may be the source on which the identical appliqued border was based of the 1848 quilt illustrated here. This same quilt, now in the collection of The United Methodist Historical Society, Lovely Lane Museum, bears further relation to the Chamberlain quilt in the presence oftwo identical quilt squares, including a holly wreath enclosed bird and a compote of fruit, as well as an almost identically arranged garland-bible-and bird square.
Several other album quilts are also related to the Chamberlain quilt in their shared composition of squares on the whole quilt. Both the Chamberlain album quilt, an example exhibited in the Museum of American Folk Art (see Sienkiewicz, p. 53, fig. 4-17), and a quilt made for Mary Sliver of Baltimore in 1849, share the same interior arrangement of squares including a central garlanded motif framed at each corner by a garland wreath and on the sides by a reticulated basket of flowers.