PHILADELPHIA, 1830-1840

Based on fashionable and costly imported Indian palampores, appliqued and quilted counterpanes such as the example illustrated here were impressive products of Empire in colonial and early Federal America. Imported to America via England, the richly died Indian cotton textiles were reproduced with glazed cotton floral prints, often but not exclusively produced in England, cut arranged and appliqued imitating the central printed Tree of Life motif surrounded by birds, insects, and fauna that visually distinguish the original. Popular in America from the third quarter of the 18th century into the second quarter of the 19th, many surviving American examples replaced the central tree with a classical urn issuing flowers or, as seen here, an appliqued basket with flowers.

The coverlet has a history of ownership in the Elliot family of Philadelphia.