Object Number 1969.0568

Object Name

Bedcover (Applique quilt)

Category

Textiles

Credit Line/Donor

Bequest of Henry Francis du Pont

Creator (Role)

Eliza Bennis (Maker)
1725-1802
Eliza (or Elizabeth) Bennis was a devout Methodist who corresponded with John Wesley. She was born and spent much of her life in Limerick, Ireland. Widowed in 1788, she moved to Philadelphia sometime thereafter. Eliza Patten was born in Limerick, Ireland in 1725 to a Presbyterian family, and married Mitchell Bennis when she was twenty years old. After hearing Robert Swindells, the first Methodist missionary to visit Limerick, she became closely involved in the Methodist Society, organizing classes and prayer meetings. Ultimately she became one of the leaders of the Methodist Society in Ireland, and frequently corresponded with John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. After 1768 Eliza spent most of her time in Waterford, and finally moved there around 1773, after her husband suffered some unspecified "trials" that affected the family fortunes. After the death of her husband in 1788, Eliza emigrated to Philadelphia with her son, and died there in 1802. While living in Waterford, she made an appliqué bedcover which she brought with her to Philadelphia. Clearly it had been highly valued, as someone carefully restored areas of damage by applying new fabrics over the original. Her spiritual diary survives, as do many of her letters to John Wesley, but no written reference to her needlework has yet been found. See DNB for further biographical information.

Place of Origin

Waterford, Ireland, United Kingdom, Europe

Origin Notes

Origin is possibly Limerick, Ireland, as this was where Eliza Bennis lived before emigrating to the United States around 1788.

Secondary Place of Origin

England, United Kingdom, Europe

Secondary Origin Notes

The fabrics used in the applique design were probably printed in England in the late eighteenth century.

Date

1782

Mark or Signature or Inscription or Label

1. Inscription; Top center; [script] EB
2. Inscription; Flanking the monogram to either side; 17 82

Materials

Cotton

Techniques

Woven (plain), Appliqued, Embroidered, Mordant style, Plate printed, Block printed

Dimensions (inches)

109 (L) , 96.5 (W)

Dimensions (centimeters)

276.86 (L) , 245.11 (W)

Measurement Notes

from Quilts in a Material World list

Object Description

Text available soon.

Bibliography and Bibliographic Notes

[Book] Eaton, Linda. 2007 Quilts in a Material World: Selections from the Winterthur Collection.
• Published: Chapter 5, p 133
[Article] Callahan, Colleen. 1985 "An Early Pieced Quilt". The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin. (Summer)
• Published: page unknown
[Book] Synge, Lanto. 2000 Art of Embroidery: A History of Style and Design.
• Published: page unknown
[Book] Orlofsky, Myron & Orlofsky, Patsy. 1974 Quilts in America.
• Published: page unknown
[Book] Holland, Nina. 1977 Contemporary Pictorial Quilts.
• Published: page unknown
[Book] Johnson, Mary Elizabeth. 1984 Flower Quilts.
• Published: page unknown
[Book] Raughter, Rosemary. 2007 The Journal of Elizabeth Bennis.
• Journal of maker of this quilt.
[Book] Bath, Virginia Churchill. 1979 Embroidery in the United States.
•
[Book] Montgomery, Florence. 1970 Printed Textiles: English and American Cottons and Linens 1700-1850.
• Textile with same print (peacocks), p. 233, fig. 217
[Book] Storey, Joyce. 1974 The Thames and Hudson Manual of Textile Printing.
• Textile with same print (peacocks), p. 60
[Chapter] Bide, Martin. Secrets of the Printer's Palette, Colors & Dyes in Rhode Island Quilts [Book] Welters, Linda & Ordoñez, Margaret. Down by the Old Mill Stream: Quilts in Rhode Island. 83-121.
• Information on mordant style, pp. 88, 101-104
[Book] Eaton, Linda. 2014 Printed Textiles: British and American Cottons and Linens 1700-1850.
• Published: p. 353, C362