Crazy for Chintz: A New Addition to the Sheraton Room

Bedspread, English roller-printed chintz, ca. 1820

This winter’s renovation project focused on the second-floor bedroom, also known as the Sheraton Room. A coat of paint, some rearrangement of furniture, and a few new highlighted pieces have made this room an even more inviting space. The beautiful Sheraton-style four poster bed has been the perfect way to showcase the wide variety of textiles in the Alice’s collection, such as the “Apotheosis of Franklin and Washington” quilt made by Anna Moore Hubbell, Lena Olena Blow’s early-20th century silk crazy quilt, and the woven coverlet donated by Anna Ernberg. 

The bedspread currently on the bed is one that, as far as I can tell, has never been displayed before. It is made of a single layer of cotton chintz printed in a pattern that combines a variety of floral motifs in brown, pinks, blue, and green. The material is only twenty-six inches wide, and the lengths are sewn together with very narrow seams of less than a quarter inch. The top hem is faced with a strip of cotton in another print. The material was most likely made in England around 1820 using the roller-printing process.

An example of an Indian chintz made for the
European market, ca. 1750-1775

When British, Dutch, and French trading companies began importing textiles from India in the 17th century, Europeans were immediately captivated by the floral printed and painted cottons they called indiennes (in France) and chintzes (in England). These lightweight, washable, and colorful fabrics were much in demand both for household furnishings and for apparel, and European manufacturers soon began working to develop the technology to make their own versions. They were so popular, in fact, that French and English silk and wool manufacturers feared the competition and successfully agitated to restrict the manufacture and import of printed textiles. Despite these laws, the popularity of printed textiles only grew during the 18th century.

Block printer at work.
“Calico” was another general
term for a printed textile.

There were three basic ways to transfer a pattern to fabric: block printing, copperplate printing, and roller printing. Block printing uses carved wooden blocks, one for each color in the design, to which colorant is applied before being placed on the fabric and struck with a mallet to impress the pattern. Though the basic idea behind block printing is simple, it required great skill to precisely align the blocks to create the pattern, and the more colors used, the more difficult it was. Nonetheless, even as new technologies for printing were introduced, block printing remained the most common technique until the early 19th century.

In the 1750s, copperplate printing was introduced in Ireland. This form of printing fabric uses the same principles as printing on paper—a metal plate is engraved with the design and ink (or dye) is applied to the plate. Copperplate printing had some advantages over block printing: patterns could be much bigger (because the printing was done with a press in which the fabric was laid on top of the plate) and images could be much more detailed and realistic. Copperplate printing was used to produce the famous toiles de jouy, but was also used for chintzes.

A major revolution in printed textiles came at the end of the 18th century with the invention of roller printing. This uses an engraved plate fixed to a continuously rolling cylinder, which is refreshed with new coloring medium on each turn and prints the fabric in one pass from end to end. Roller printing eliminated the need to reposition the block or plate, as well as the fabric, after each impression. The advantages were immediately apparent—printing was much faster and thus, cheaper. For the first time, printed textiles could be produced on a large scale. This, combined with new developments in chemical dyes, meant that by the 1830s, they were no longer luxury goods exclusively for the middle and upper class, but were widely available (they lost much of their prestige among the well-to-do at this point—hence the term “chintzy” for something cheap or gaudy).

Detail of bedspread. Note that the pattern runs all
the way to the selvedge.

The narrow width of the material in the bedspread, combined with the crisp, detailed printing and use of multiple colors, suggests that this fabric was roller-printed. The muted color scheme, and the use of blue overprinting on yellow to produce green, suggests a date prior to the 1830s. The dark background is also more common in later printed textiles. This material still has its original glazing, produced through the application of friction to create a crisp, glossy finish. Normally glazing would wear off through use and washing, but a purely decorative bedcover like this one would not need much washing.

As is unfortunately the case with many of the items in the collection, we don’t know how Alice acquired this bedspread or what its history might be. But it certainly makes a fine addition to the Sheraton Room!

Sources:

Printed Textiles 1760-1860 in the Collection of the Cooper-Hewitt Museum (Smithsonian Institution, 1987).

Eileen Jahnke Trestain, Dating Fabrics: A Color Guide, 1800-1960 (Paducah, KY: American Quilter’s Society, 1998).

“18th Century Printed Cotton Fabrics,” http://demodecouture.com/cotton/

It's the Little Things...

A few recent additions at the museum have made it possible to exhibit for the first time in many years some objects Alice Miner collected. We now have a dress that probably belonged to Mrs. Miner exhibited on a simple mannequin in the Miner Room on the third floor. 

Another display addition is a glass case for jewelry and small objects. This lighted case is on display in the Sheraton Room on the second floor of The Alice. In it you will see many pieces of jewelry, small objects from the children's room - including miniature books and tiny dolls, bakelite jewelry, lockets, eyeglasses and more.

These shoe buckles are said to have belonged to the third President of the United States and author of the Declaration of Independence Thomas Jefferson.

One of the few necklaces in The Alice collection this is an Egyptian scarab piece made of gold, turquoise and other carved stones. It has a matching scarab bracelet. Although Alice Miner and her sisters traveled in Egypt we do not know where she purchased these lovely adornments.

Two pair of 19th century eyeglasses. One was worn by Mrs. Betsey Persons of Rochester, Vermont. The other pair (forefront) belonged to Judge Chew of Richland County, Ohio. The leather glasses case in back also belonged to Mrs. Persons.

A 19th century amethyst and gold pin. There are two sets of earrings to match this bright pin. In back is a french carved ivory pen point holder from the mid-19th century.

Brown and black bakelite earring and pin set. Bakelite was one of the first synthetic plastics - this set likely dates to the early 20th century. Along with these wonderful objects are many more small things to catch your imagination. Come for a tour sometime and see them for yourself. The Alice is open Tuesday - Saturday with tours at 10am, noon and 2pm.

Likeness in Profile

Art and history can often be found in the most surprising places. For example, while driving along the interstate recently, I spotted a silhouette... we've all seen her - she may be the most commonly reproduced silhouette of our time - mud flap girl! Although this may seem to some a modern and novel way to depict a beautiful woman, this type of illustration has a long history and was once a very popular form of low-cost portraiture.

The Alice's collection holds a lovely group of thirty slightly more sophisticated silhouettes of men, women and children, collected by Alice in the early 20th century. The silhouettes are displayed together in the Sheraton Room on the second floor. They are wonderful little gems, exhibited in a wide variety of metal and wooden frames. Most are portraits of unnamed persons, but we know who a few of the people are - Benjamin Franklin, Martha Washington, John Ruskin, Aaron Burr, you may not recognize other names; Oscar Dinsmore-Davis (age 10 months and four days,) Margaret Davidson (her daughter was a poetic prodigy who died quite young,) Lucretia Platt, Alexander Potter, Eugenie (which may be the likeness of Empress Eugenie - wife of Napoleon III, and the last Empress of the French.)

Eugenie, 1870

The silhouette collection runs the gamut of the ways people were pictured - from the view of only the head, to full body profiles. One of the latter method depicts Alexander Potter and his dog. The Potter silhouette was created in 1829 by Auguste Amant Constant Fidéle Edouart (1789-1861.) Mr. Potter's and his dog's silhouettes were cut out of black paper and mounted on white paper, on which a split rail fence was lightly painted. The riding crop he holds is partly of cut paper and partly painted.

Alexander Potter by Aug. Edouart 1829 photo: PHOTOPIA/Shaun Heffernan

On the back of our Edouart silhouette is the following printed label,

"LIKENESS IN PROFILE
Executed by Mons. Edouart,

Who begs to observe, that his Likenesses are produced by the Scissors alone, and are preferable to any taken by Machines, inasmuch as by the above method, the expression of the Passions, and peculiarities of Character, are brought into action, in a style which has not hitherto been attempted by any other Artist..."

The methods used to create these images also varied widely, some were cut black silhouettes, mounted on white paper (which may be blank, or painted, or lithographed with a background scene) - some had the white paper as the cut silhouette which was then mounted on black - still others were produced by painting directly on glass, wax, plaster, or even ivory.

Auguste Edouart began cutting silhouettes in 1825 to prove an argument - he tells a story of "bustling the old father into a proper position, seizing a pair of scissors from a work basket, blacking a quickly torn piece of paper with the candle snuffers, and snipping a silhouette infinitely superior to the mechanical shade the family had been commending. It was at once approved of and found so like, that the ladies changed their teasing and ironical tone to praises, and begged me to take their mother's likeness, which I did with the same facility and exactness." Clearly Edouart was somewhat arrogant, but many others admired his work.

Auguste Edouart self portrait

Edouart was born in Dunkirk, France, fought valiantly in Napoleon's army and was decorated. He later moved to England where he traveled the country cutting portraits of British and French nobility. He came to the U.S. in 1839, just a few months before the daguerreotype made it to America, and stayed for ten years cutting silhouettes of Presidents and well-known Americans. On the return journey his ship sank and most of the folios full of copies of his thousands of silhouettes were lost. It is said that he never produced another after that ill-fated day.

Tracing the shadow of a figure thrown onto the wall was a means of portraiture employed as early as the Greek culture. This method did not receive the name "silhouette" until the 18th century, when it was named for a French finance minister who enjoyed creating likenesses made of cut paper... an inexpensive and fun method of portraiture. Other terms include; shade, scissor writing, paper profiles, paper cuts, black shades (a term Edouart hated!,) shadows, and profiles. The most famous English silhouette artist was John Miers (1756-1821.) Alice Miner also acquired a Miers silhouette of the head of a young woman created with black ink on gessoed plaster.

Head of a young woman by Miers, 19th century

Silhouettes became less prominent with the invention of the camera, rapidly losing popularity in the United States after 1840. They continued to be a type of artwork found at fairs and tourist sites for much of the 20th century, and silhouette artists can still be found today, selling their unique brand of portraiture as a more specialized and nostalgic niche item. If you might be thinking of becoming a silhouette artist, you would do well to visit The Alice and study our collection!

Tours are at 10:00, noon, and 2:00 Tuesday - Saturday.