1840 - 1860 Sophia Denty's Floral Appliqued Quilt Top
date: label: date made
content: 1840-1860
name: label: maker
content: Denty, Sophia Barker
notes: label: Description
content: According to family information, shortly after the quilt maker, Sophia Denty, married she moved into a house built in 1729 located in Fairfax, Northern Virginia. The house at the time had an old English garden that Sophia had always admired and it was supposedly the inspiration for the patterns she chose for this quilt top.
label: Description
content: Twenty-five 17¼-inch blocks were appliquéd with red and green flowers and leaves in sprays, wreaths, and vases. Embroidery enhances a few of the stems. Two blocks have appliquéd star designs and one has appliquéd pineapples. Plain-weave cottons in plain colors were used. The 8¼-inch border is appliquéd with a meandering vine bearing leaves and buds. The blocks were joined after 1840. The color scheme, red-and-green, and standard designs are typical for many mid-nineteenth-century quilts.
label: Description
content: Sophia Barker was born on January 26, 1813, in Fairfax, Virginia. She married James Compton Denty on July 10, 1832. They lived in Northern Virginia with their eight children. Sophia died February 19, 1886 and is buried in the Pohick Church in Accotink, Fairfax, Virginia. Emeline Denty Talbott donated her grandmother’s quilt top to the Smithsonian in 1972.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Virginia, Fairfax
topic: label: Subject
content: Quilting
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Textiles
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content: Textiles
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content: Domestic Furnishings
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content: Quilts
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Miss Emeline Denty Talbott
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: TE.T15351
label: catalog number
content: T15351
label: accession number
content: 293862
objectType: label: Object Name
content: quilt top
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: fabric, cotton (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: thread, cotton, silk (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 103 in x 103 in; 261 cm x 262 cm