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Autograph Quilt

Example of autograph quilt. Example of autograph quilt.

Autograph quilt is an American term for a type of commemorative quilt. These quilts come in two forms, friendship quilts and album quilts. Friendship quilts are informal, single pattern quilts; album quilts, or sampler album quilts, are regarded as being more formal in nature. In both cases, however, the characteristic feature of this type of quilt is the presence of numerous signatures of friends and family members.

Most nineteenth century signatures were written with indelible ink, while in the twentieth century they were often embroidered. Occasionally, one person chosen for her beautiful handwriting would inscribe all the signatures.

Autograph quilts are sometimes classed as signed remembrance quilts, but remembrance forms tend to be linked with the death of someone, rather than commemorating a specific event. It would appear that many early album quilts (1840-1860's) were made up of blocks that included inked drawings, signatures and verses. By the time of the Civil War in the 1860's, album quilt inscriptions had become shorter and many only included the block maker's name, their hometown and sometimes a date.

Source: BRACKMAN, Barbara (1989). Clues in the Calico: A Guide to Identifying and Dating Quilts, EMP Publications.

Digital source of illustration (retrieved 30 June 2016).

SA

Last modified on Tuesday, 14 February 2017 10:10