Quilt, Nine Patch pattern variation

Rebecca Davis

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This Nine Patch quilt, along with two others in the Museum’s collection (1980.498.1 and 1980.498.3) were made by Rebecca Davis, grandmother of the donor, Mrs. Andrew Galbraith Carey. Although this example is not signed, it can be assumed that all of Davis’ quilts in the collection were made sometime around 1846, since her Honeycomb quilt (1980.498.1) is dated to that year and 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. Rebecca Davis had an excellent sense of color and design, especially noticeable in this quilt. And although it was probably the easiest to piece of the three and is certainly the most simply quilted, its pattern of internal symmetry is particularly attractive. The pattern has a focal point in the centermost square of the center block, which is flanked in all directions by pairs of matching blocks. Only the two outermost rows of blocks do not match, perhaps because Davis ran out of fabric.

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