A history of Dutch quilts

Description

The Netherlands has a long tradition of quilt making. The oldest references to what was called a 'culte' date from the 13th century, while a number of 17th century quilts have also survived in museums and private collections. These, in combination with antique bedclothes, provide a faithful impression of household textiles in the time of Rembrandt and Vermeer. The silk used for the original cultes, which were products for the aristocracy and the rich, was supplanted at the end of the Dutch Golden Age by hand-painted Indian cotton chintz, a process in which the extensive textile trade of the Dutch East India Company played a significant role. In the eighteenth century, the large quantities of chintz and European printed cotton led women to use leftover pieces of fabric to make quilts or bedcovers that display a magnificent variety of creative expression. The author considers at length the materials used, the patterns and the techniques. This book provides a comprehensive insight into the distinctive history of Dutch quilts. It becomes clear that Dutch quilts made a contribution to the development of quilts in the United States of America. The first Dutch inhabitants of New Amsterdam, which later became New York, brought quilts with them from their mother countries in the seventeenth century. Descriptions of these quilts can still be found in the emigrants' estate inventories that have been preserved in the New York State Archives in Albany. The second part of the book presents a selection of 71 of the total of 380 recorded antique Dutch quilts and quilted textiles, making it possible to compare antique quilts from all over the world with those from the Netherlands. The Dutch quilts can also serve as inspiring examples for the many quilts being made everywhere today. This book is the long-awaited, lavishly illustrated review for quilters, quilt lovers and everyone interested in textile history. An Moonen was conservator of the Dutch Open Air Museum in Arnhem.