Quilt
PeriodCirca 1820-1825
Place MadeHolmdel, New Jersey, U.S.A.
MediumPrinted cottons
Dimensions97.75 × 106 in. (248.3 × 269.2 cm)
ClassificationsQuilts and Coverlets
Credit LineGift of Mrs. Jennie S. Van Mater, in Memory of her Son, Samuel C. Van Mater, 1935
Object number814
DescriptionA hand-pieced exceptionally large "Four Patch" quilt, with the blocks set on point and pieced in sixteen strips with the setting fabrics alternating light and dark from row to row. The fabrics are roller printed cottons, some glazed, in both bright and muted muted tones of chrome yellow, salmon pink, tan, brown, blue, red, and green. Some fabrics are probably scraps saved over a period of more than forty years, dating from the 1770s through the 1820s. The red and blue-green glazed cotton chintz backing fabric, printed with "islands" of pheasants and palm trees isolated with bands of wine-red solid color, repeats on the quilt's front as both setting fabric and in the pieced blocks themselves. The batting is very thin and quilted in zig-zag lines with large running stitches. The front and back are turned together and stitched to bind the edges.Curatorial RemarksQuilts like this Four Patch strip quilt serve as an historic fabric dictionary, revealing the types and patterns of fabrics available to Monmouth County residents for decades. The earliest fabrics appear to be simple two- or three-color floral cottons, with blue and pink flowers against a white background. Another early cotton print is of a small pale pink floral sprig, widely spaced against a white background. Later fabrics include a variety of tans, browns, and dull reds in small and medium-sized floral prints. One very interesting fabric is a cotton, appearing to be a block print, in red and blue in a relatively bold geometric alternating stripe, with solid color bands and on point square and outline banding motifs. The smaller floral patterns are clearly dress fabrics, while the large-scale glazed chintz backing fabric (also used in some of the blocks along the upper and lower portions of the front of the quilt) is one of several colorways of the "Pheasant and Palm Chintz" pattern documented by quilt historian Barbara Brackman. The pattern appears to have been introduced in or around 1815. This is an exceptionally large quilt, almost nine feet in length and eight feet wide.NotesMrs. Jennie S. Van Mater donated this quilt in memory of her son, Samuel C. Van Mater, who was killed in an automobile accident outside of Freehold in 1935. The quilt may have been made by Holmdel resident Ann Van Mater (1785-1825), wife of Joseph H. Van Mater (1775-1860). The could had nine children. The Association owns a sampler made by Ann's daughter Eliza Ann (1824-1840) (accession number 813) given at the same time as the oversized quilt. Both items descended to Ann Van Mater's great- nephew Joseph H. Van Mater (b. 1867), whose widow Jennie S. Campbell Van Mater (1868 - 1959) donated them to the Association.
Collections
ProvenanceAnn Van Mater (1785-1825) to her daughter Eliza Van Mater (1824 - 1840); to her brother Joseph I. Van Mater (1825 - 1907); to his son Joseph H. Van Mater (b. 1867); to his widow Jennie S. Campbell Van Mater (1868 - 1959).
