Star of Lemoyne Quilt

Rebecca Davis

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This Star of Lemoyne quilt, along with two others in the Museum’s collection (1980.498.1 and 1980.498.2) was 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. The most complete mark is found on this quilt on a lavender cotton with star-shaped figures that identifies the fabric’s design as having been registered in 1844. Of the three Davis quilts in the collection, this is the only one without a central focus. In her other two quilts, the centralized designs are subtle compared with those made earlier in the century (see 23.80.75). This illustrates the mid-nineteenth-century change of fashion from the pieced quilt with a strong central motif to the repeating block format that is still the most popular quilt-making method today.

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