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This wonderfully colourful design is
based on flower motifs and patterns from various forms
of American folk art. The central square is inspired
by a panel from a quilt worked around 1846. The design
on the left hand side of this comes from a bookplate
of 1795 in the fraktur tradition. Fraktur was the style
of hand-decorated manuscripts primarily worked by immigrant
Pennsylvanian-German families in America.
To the right is a tulip motif, the
most popular flower depicted in 18th and 19th century
folk art, from a fraktur birth & baptism certificate
dating to around 1809. Just above is a vase of flowers
based on a wool bed rug from Stowe, Vermont, 1819. To
the left is a detail of a flower from a beautifully
decorated birth & baptism certificate from 1784, Pennsylvania.
The daisy in the top left hand corner is from a wooden
ale bowl from 1828 made by Norwegian settlers. The little
flower in the bottom right hand corner is taken from
a bookmark by the Amish artist Barbara Ebersol dating
to 1869. The panel next to this is another tulip design
adapted from a painted candle box now housed in the
Metropolitan Museum of Art. The bottom left hand corner
shows a delicate floral design inspired by an embroidered
show towel, which were popular between 1820 and 1850.
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