Gypsy Baron crazy quilt

ca. 1887

American, dates unknown

Almost anything goes in this quilt: flowers, fruit, wheat, children, fish, stars and a moon-sickle face appear. The title Gypsy Baron helps date the quilt, as it commemorates the operetta of that title composed by Johann Strauss in 1885.

Such a topsy-turvy pattern was sorted out through storytelling. The donor remembers her grandmother unveiling it on the piano as a challenge for all the grandchildren to decipher.

Silk velvet, metallic thread, jacquard woven silk, paint: pieced, embroidered

60 x 68 in.

Gift of Mrs. Jacqueline A. Wood

75.23

Provenance:

Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, American Art: The Stories We Carry, Oct. 20, 2022 - ongoing.

Published References"Seattle Art Museum: Bridging Cultures." London: Scala Publishers Ltd. for the Seattle Art Museum, 2007, p. 45, illus. p. 44

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

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