Bird and squirrel on an album quilt about 1850
from dealers Woodard & Greenstein
This photo was the frontispiece in the 1981 Quilt Engagement Calendar. They knew little about their album except that it was spectacular.
We have seen a lot more quilts since 1981. Most of
us would recognize the blocks as typical of Baltimore and Maryland about 1850.
Colorful, accurate birds aren't too common on album quilts. Many of us would
also recognize the quilt and the birds on it as related to the 1851 Mary Brown medallion sampler.
A typical Mary-Brown-style bird from her 1851 quilt.
The birds with their fancy wings seem to be a signature design in a set of medallions samplers.
This bird is in a quilt dated and signed Mary Jane Carr
in the collection of the Shelburne Museum.
Mary Jane Carr, 1854, Shelburne Museum
This one from an almost identical quilt also signed Mary Jane Carr,
owned by Mary & Joe Koval.
Mary Jane Carr. The best way to tell these two
apart is that the Koval's quilt has dogs in the lower corners.
This does not look like what was going on in New Hampshire in 1847.
So I looked at some other East Nottinghams and realized that
Mary Brown was from East Nottingham, Maryland.
East Nottingham is on Maryland's northern border next to
Pennsylvania.
The plot thickens.
I wish I could find that quilt by Martha Pierson of East Nottingham so I could give you a link. But no.