Woman's Pictorial Quilted Petticoat

initialsdate.jpg
mermaid.jpg

Subject

Clothing and Dress

Title

Woman's Pictorial Quilted Petticoat

Date

1749

Format

Currently the artifact measures 25 inches long; 115 inches wide (the original circumference at the hem) (63.3 cm; 292 cm)

Description

This petticoat, donated to URI by Winslow Ames in 1971, contributes to our understanding of quilting as an important element of a woman’s life in the 1700s. The technical ability of quilting found on this petticoat demonstrates a skilled hand at needlework. The petticoat’s materials reflect the use of quilted clothing for warmth and the desire to achieve the structured silhouette fashionable during the eighteenth century. And finally, the fantastic and glorious people, animals, and vegetation inhabiting the bottom of this petticoat identify “M.J.” quilted just above the chariot, perhaps the maker and owner, as a member of a select group of women now being discovered and studied.

The very top would have been pleated into a waistband accommodating the wearer, thus utilizing the complete widths of silk fabric from which the petticoat was made. The bottom section of the petticoat in its original form would have been visible according the fashions of 1749, the date stitched into the garment. At this time petticoats were considered acceptable for display, with skirts often open at the front and shortened all around. The quilted designs around this petticoat include eccentric figures and plant life that float in a background of narrow parallel lines diagonally filling the space. A squirrel, which is a motif that appears in most of these petticoats, has been quilted above a horseback rider with long hair, hat, and 18th-century coat. A mermaid carries her mirror while Cupid draws his bow. These forms and others appear in a unique grouping of 18th-century petticoats characterized by Linda Baumgarten as being pictorial quilts from the Connecticut area of New England, perhaps from an individual – or pupils from a single teacher – yet to be identified.

Microscopic examination of fibers performed by Annie-Beth Ellington, MS '11, identified the petticoat’s materials. The gold-colored, plain-weave silk fabric is quilted to a backing of plain-weave brown wool with a wool batting between. Silk thread was used to produce the fine quilting lines on the front, created by the use of a backstitch.

The petticoat had been turned into a bedcover and appeared as such in the March 1923 edition of Antiques Magazine. Someone then aligned the pieces as they would have appeared originally before it was donated to URI. The artifact now measures approximately 115 inches wide and 25 inches high. No longer complete, we can still see the beautiful petticoat of the past.

References

Baumgarten, Linda. "The Layered Look: Design in Eighteenth-Century Quilted Petticoats." Dress 34.1 (2007): 7-31.

Schoelwer, Susan. Connecticut Needlework. Women, Art, And Family, 1740-1840, (Middletown [CT]: Wesleyan University Press, 2010).

Source

Donor: Winslow Ames

Identifier

URI 1971.35.01

Contributor

Susan J. Jerome

Medium

yellow silk face fabric
wool batting
wool backing fabric
silk thread

Citation

“Woman's Pictorial Quilted Petticoat,” Historic Textile and Costume Collection, accessed March 29, 2024, https://uritextilecollection.omeka.net/items/show/81.