Charts to Help You Date Vintage and Antique Quilts by Style

Tuesday, December 28, 2007

Quilt historian, Kimberly Wulfert, has designed two period dating charts to help everyone from quilt collectors to folks just wondering when their family heirloom quilts were made. Antique dealers can use them to date and describe the quilts they are selling. Abbreviations are used so that a lot of information is packed into these carry along charts.

The charts are described as "Buyer's & Sellers Quick Guides for Auctions, Antiquing, Yard Sales & More". One is the "Antique Quilt Dating Guide 1775-1900 by Style" and the other is the "Antique Quilt Dating Guide 1900-1950 by Style" Both have tons of information about styles. The first is divided into three time periods, 1775-1830, 1830-1870 and 1870-1900 while the second covers, 1900-1920 and 1920-1950.

I thought I'd try using them on two family quilts I own. I decided to start with a crazy quilt made by my grandmother. To help me I looked at two entries on the charts. For the period from 1870 to 1900 I found the following information:

"Crazy qlt. made of irregular shaped patches of silks, satins, velvets, taffeta, ribbons, tobacco silks, basted onto a foundation fabric, fancy emb. stitching on seams …"

My quilt is made of upholstery samples including mostly velvets and does have decorative stitching on the seams and a few embroidered motifs.

Next I looked at 1900 to 1920 and found that the fancy fabrics were less common and the embroidery at the seams was simpler, often feather stitch or "Xs" stitch. The embroidery on my grandmother's quilt is all in one color and fairly basic. The chart also mentions they may be tied and backed just like the quilt my grandmother made. This leaves me thinking that the quilt was most likely made close to the turn of the last century.

Another family quilt made by my great grandmother late in her life consists of postage stamp squares so I checked the information on that style of quilting and found the following for the period 1900-1920:

"Postage Stamp-size sqs., "3/4" sewn together w/planned color placement to form the motifs. Different colored rows from the center out may form the whole top or versions in small sqs., stars or "Xs".

As you can see to the right, my great grandmother put her squares together in a set pattern of white squares and squares with dozens of printed scrap fabrics. It appears my great grandmother's quilt was typical of many postage stamp quilts made in the first part of the 19th century.

Learning more about family quilts is just one way the charts can be used. I also used the charts to help me write up information for a bed turning my quilt guild held at their quilt show. Next I plan to give the charts to a good friend who collects and sells antiques.

Go to the Antique Quilt Dating Guide site and explore the information on the charts. You will especially enjoy viewing the various antique quilts that are shown moving along the bottom of the page. When you click on one you will see the information to be found on the charts regarding the specific quilt.