Branches and Vines Quilt

Ernestine Eberhardt Zaumseil

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Working in the later years of the nineteenth century, Ernestine Zaumseil created this extraordinary quilt employing the Tree of Life pattern, a design that has been popular for use on bedcovers since the seventeenth century. The first Tree of Life bedcovers, called “palampores”, were of Indian origin and featured a stylized tree bearing fantastical fruits and flowers. An Indian palampore makes up the central panel of quilt 2014.263 in the American Wing's collection. In Zaumseil’s quilt, the trees and branches are much more realistic, in part because she seems to have traced leaves from actual trees and vines to serve as patterns for her appliquéd designs.

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