Quilt, Crazy pattern

Unlike the Amish, who live in isolated communities and practice their religion as completely separated from the outside world as possible, those of the Quaker faith remain in the world and attempt to reform it. This difference accounts for the higher degree of likeness to broader trends in art and design found in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century objects made by Quakers.
Members of the Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers, as they are more commonly known, first arrived in the American colonies from England in 1656. Although the majority of Quakers were farmers and country people, most were fairly well-to-do. By the middle of the eighteenth century, the Quakers of Philadelphia, many of whom were wealthy merchants, were considered the aristocracy of the city. For a Quaker, affluence posed a problem: how to maintain the important religious virtues of simplicity and equality while enjoying one's wealth. Eighteenth-century observers noted that although the Quakers insisted on simply designed furnishings and clothes, these objects were always made from the finest materials. In women's clothing, this translated into simple, unornamented silk or velvet dresses in muted tones.
The silk quilts associated with the Quakers were a natural outgrowth of the stylish quilted silk petticoats worn by Quaker (and other well-to-do) women in the late eighteenth century. These petticoats were meant to be seen as decorated panels under the split-front skirts of the period. Quilted silk garments were popular in England as early as the middle of the seventeenth century, and many examples of silk petticoats and whole-cloth silk quilts (see 1999.352) from the early eighteenth century still exist in English collections. When this style of dress went out of fashion, the petticoats were often used as sections of bed coverings. Undoubtedly, these attractive works inspired Quaker women to continue to produce silk quilts throughout the nineteenth century, although they evolved from the wholecloth to the pieced-block type.
The Crazy quilt illustrated here was made in the later decades of the nineteenth century, when a wide variety of silks were being pieced into Quaker quilts. In addition to the solid-colored silks in the characteristic Quaker shades of browns, beiges, and grays, the quilt also includes bits of printed silk, as well as cut and uncut velvets. The wool backing and cotton quilting thread are a surprisingly bright red. For unknown reasons, Crazy quilts were popular with the Quakers, although their versions are quite subdued and orderly. The virtuoso quilting, traditional to this group, also sets this work apart from Crazy quilts made by non-Quakers.
The quilt was originally purchased at an auction that took place in Lancaster County. The people whose property was being sold were not Quakers, and therefore it may be supposed that, because many Quakers live in the surrounding areas, either this couple acquired the piece at some point or the local auctioneer added the quilt to the sale from another source. The auction was held in 1973 and because all the people concerned are no longer alive, we may never know who made this superb quilt.
[Peck 2015; adapted from Amelia Peck, "American Quilts & Coverlets in the Metropolitan Museum of Art," 2007]