Quilt, Hexagon or Honeycomb pattern

Rebecca Davis

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This "Honeycomb" or hexagon quilt, along with two others in the Museum’s collection (1980.498.2 and 1980.498.3) was made by Rebecca Davis, grandmother of the donor, Mrs. Andrew Galbraith Carey. It is signed in the center of the schematic flower at the far right, second row from the bottom. The inscription, handwritten in black ink, reads: "Rebecca Davis/1846/March." Although the other two quilts are not signed, we can assume that they were also made sometime around 1846, since all three share some of the same fabrics. Most of the fabrics sewn into these quilts appear to be English printed cottons, an attribution confirmed by the sections of English design-registration marks visible on a number of the pieces. Some of the pieces in this quilt are vividly colored rainbow prints, a type of fabric that gained great popularity in the 1840s. Its rainbow-like appearance is due to a special process used to spread the dye of the ground color in stripes that shade from light to dark.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.

Metropolitan Museum of Art