• Early 19th-century French quilt, printed front with a central floral scarf and wide quilted border.
  • Early 19th-century French quilt, printed front with a central floral scarf and wide quilted border.
  • Close view of a corner of the quilt’s printed scarf, with floral detail and surrounding quilting.
  • Detail of the scarf’s corner print on the front of the early 19th-century French quilt.
  • Floral print on the quilt’s scarf panel, with a repeat of roses, foxgloves and tulips.
  • Joined section of the printed scarf at the centre of the French quilt, showing the mismatched seam.
  • Historic wear in an area of the printed cotton on the front of the French quilt.
  • Rust-coloured staining on the printed front of the early 19th-century French quilt.
  • Water marking visible on the printed front of the French reversible quilt.
  • Printed front of the French quilt folded back to reveal its white quilted reverse.
  • White reverse of the French reversible quilt, with diamond quilting and corded motifs.
  • Close view of the white quilted border, showing dense stitching and raised cording.
  • Dark rust-coloured staining on the white quilted reverse of the French quilt.
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Early 19th-Century French Reversible Fichu Boutis and Piqué Quilt with Printed Scarf

Early 19th-Century French Reversible Fichu Boutis and Piqué Quilt with Printed Scarf

Early 19th-century French reversible quilt, with a floral printed scarf set into one face and white corded boutis on the other. c. 1820–1850; 123 × 153 cm.

£750.00
£750.00
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Description and Details

An early 19th-century French fichu quilt with two distinct faces. The printed front centres on a block-printed cotton scarf, or fichu, with a floral border in madder red and indigo tones, set within a piqué quilted field. The print includes roses, foxgloves and tulips. The scarf centre has been altered, leaving a visible mismatched seam where a section was removed, a useful trace of the textile’s earlier life.

Turned over, the quilt has a white boutis face worked with closely spaced hand stitching, raised cording, a diamond grid and running geometric and floral motifs. Narrow cotton panels are joined by horizontal seams across the reverse, a construction consistent with the narrow loom widths used for domestic textiles of the period.

The quilt is structurally sound, with minor edge wear, light foxing and areas of staining on the printed front. A dark rust-coloured stain is visible on both sides, on the the white reverse and is more pronounced there than the staining on the front; both faces also show faint water marks. The affected areas are shown in the photographs. The quilt is unwashed and untreated.

France, likely Provence, c. 1820–1850. Measures 123 × 153 cm.


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