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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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