Wholecloth quilt

Although this quilt was made in England in the mid-eighteenth century, it entered the American Wing’s collection on the grounds that it has spent most of its very long life in this country. From England, where it was made by a professional quilter, it was imported to Boston and presented to Ann (Nancy) Maverick (1721-1811) and Nathaniel Phillips (1721-1811) on the occasion of their marriage on October 21, 1747. Amazingly well preserved, and clearly treasured, the quilt remained in their family for more than two hundred years.
Even in the mid-eighteenth century, this was a special quilt. Silk quilts were not generally intended for everyday use, and were not owned by everyday families. The delicate quilt has a plain-weave green silk top and a wool back that has been "calendered" (or pressed) with a large-scale pattern of flowers and foliage, reminiscent of the Baroque patterns woven into the famous English-made Spitalfields silks of the same period. It is stuffed with a layer of wool and has been quilted with green silk thread in intricate designs centering on a circular medallion.
The silk for the quilts top could have been either manufactured in England or imported there from India or another far-off spot. The wool backing, however, is almost certainly an English product, and would probably have been described at the time as a "figured camlet." Camlets were plain-weave single-color wools, sometimes mixed with goat hair, silk, or linen, that were often pressed with patterns. "The Universal Dictionary of Trade and Commerce," originally published in the 1750s, defined figured camlets as "those of one colour, where-on are stamped various figures, flowers, foliages, &c. by means of hot irons, which are a kind of moulds pressed together with the stuff under a press."
There is evidence that other Bostonians owned silk quilts. William Greenleaf’s ad in "The Boston Weekly News-Letter" of December 18, 1760, was one of a few textile-merchant’s ads found that referred to quilts
like this one. Greenleaf advertised that the goods at his shop near the Post-Office in Cornhill, Boston, were imported from London and Bristol, and that among many other fabrics he had "callamancoe and silk quilts." Calamanco was another kind of fine wool fabric popular in the eighteenth century, and would have served as an equally strong and warm backing for silk quilts. Though not widely advertised or owned, silk quilts do show up in some Boston-area estate inventories of the period; when the estate of Peter Faneuil, one of Boston’s richest merchants, was tallied after his death in 1743, four silk quilts in a variety of colors were noted. The inventory of Massachusetts Governor William Burnet (I688-1729), taken the year of his death, included an "India Silk Quilt." The combination of silk for beauty and wool for warmth is also evident in the 1747 Boston inventory of Reverend Benjamin Colman, which included a "1 Camblet raised Bed & Bedsted Lin’d with white silk & a Silk Quilt."
It is hard to know how much these luxury items cost at the time--a silk quilt that appears in the "Westerly Chamber," in the 1756 inventory of Joseph Warren of nearby Roxbury, Massachusetts, was valued at 40 shillings, the same value given the looking glass in the room, another luxury item. The entire bed and set of bed hangings in the room, which included "One Sute Curts Double Vallens, head Cloth, Teaster, wth Bedstead &c," was valued at 100 shillings. A blanket listed with the silk quilt was only valued at 6 shillings.
The quilt traveled down through one family via a succession of girls named Ann or Nancy, until the late 1880s, when it sidestepped to another branch of the family. That branch held on to the quilt until 1992. Its history is known because it was kindly provided to us in the form of handwritten labels attached to the quilt by the family members who owned it. Because of these labels, the first written before 1886, and the second probably written in the 1930s or 1940s, and a third from 1961, we were able to trace the path the quilt took in making its way to the Museum’s collection.
The first label was written in ink in tiny handwriting on the calling card of Ann Lovering Gay (1819-1886), the great-granddaughter of the original owner. The card reads: "This green silk quilted Bedspread belonged to Ann (Maverick) Phillips--Given to her daughter Ann (Phillips) Lovering--Given to her daughter Nancy (Lovering) Gay. Given to her daughter Ann Lovering Gay. Nathanial Phillips & Ann Maverick were married Oct, 20 or 21 1747." On the same card, in another hand, is written: "Given to her niece Eliza D (Gay) Howard. Given to her daughter Kate Reed Howard 1932." A second label attached right underneath in yet another person’s handwriting states: "Property of Kate Reed Howard. Made in 1747 for her great-great, great grandmother
Anne (Maverick) Phillips." And finally, there is a fairly modern round red paper tag dangling from a string, attached to the quilt with a safety pin, with writing in ballpoint pen that says: "Exhibit Loan. Jean Howard 10/61."
With perseverance, we were able to find out some facts about most of these women. Most were lifelong residents of Boston. The Maverick family in America began with John Maverick (1578-1636), who arrived probably before 1630 from Awliscombe, Devon, England, and died in Boston on February 3, 1636. He was the great-great-grandfather of the first Ann, so by the time she was born in 1721, the Mavericks were a well-established local family. According to Boston marriage records, Ann Maverick was married to Nathaniel Phillips in 1747 by Reverend William Welsted. The couple had seven children; the first-born daughter was named Ann, after her mother, as was frequent practice in the eighteenth century. That daughter, Ann Phillips (1760-1829), was married to Joseph. M. Lovering (1758-1848) on January 13, 1789. Lovering is remembered for being a participant in the famous Boston Tea Party of 1773; at age fifteen, he was one of the youngest members of the rebel band. The firstborn of their seven children, Nancy Lovering (I792-1870), married George Gay (1790-1843) on September 17, 1818, in Dedham, Massachusetts, Gay’s hometown. The Gays had nine children; their firstborn, a girl, was named Ann Lovering Gay (1819-1886). This Ann never married, and, having no daughter to whom to pass the quilt, she did the next best thing--she gave it to her niece, the firstborn daughter of her younger brother, William Bradford Shubrick Gay (1820-1901). The niece, named Eliza Dwight Gay (1846-?), was married on March 25, 1867, to Joseph Willett Howard (1843-?), an iron manufacturer. In 1932 the quilt passed to their daughter, Kate Reed Howard (1873-?), who seems never to have married. The family relationship of the Jean Howard who lent the quilt to an exhibition in 1961 is unclear--perhaps she was a niece of Kate Reed Howard. Upon Jean Howard’s death in the early 1990s, the quilt passed out of the family and was purchased by a collector. Aware of its importance as a rare survivor with a wonderful family history, and also of its fragile state, the collector sold it to the Museum a few years later.
　
[Peck 2015; adapted from Amelia Peck, "American Quilts & Coverlets in the Metropolitan Museum of Art," 2007]

Two paper labels with provenance are sewn to the piece: 1. "Property of / Kate Reed Howard / Made in 1747 for her / great-great, great / grandmother / Anne(Maverick) Phillips" 2. "This green silk quilted Bedspread belonged / to Ann (Maverick) Phillips--Given to her / daughter Ann (Phillips) Lovering--Given to her daughter Nancy (Lovering) Gay. Given to her/ daughter Ann Lovering Gay. Genealogical research done by the seller seems to back up the information found on the labels.