Artist/Maker:

Granbery, Elizabeth

Place Made:

Date Made:

1800-1805

Medium:

cotton

Dimensions:

HOA: 91 1/8-93 1/4; WOA: 90 3/8

Accession Number:

2636

Description:

MAKER: Elizabeth Granbery was born on November 3, 1784, to Josiah Granbery (1754-1800) and Ann Gregory (1755-1836). She lived in Gates County, North Carolina. The location of their home, known as “The Folley”, is shown on early maps of the region such as the Mouzon and the Collet.

Elizabeth’s father, Josiah Granbery, was a Vestryman of St. Paul’s Church in Edenton, North Carolina. He was a member of the Assembly at New Bern, North Carolina, in April of 1775, and again at Hillsborough on August 25, 1775. (Wheelers History of N.C.)

She married Joseph Gordon (1780-1828) on February 19, 1805.

DESCRIPTION: Chintz appliqued bedcover, quilted with a central motif of birds and foliage within a diamond within a square; the whole surrounded by a border with appliqued swags and bows; ground is quilted in clamshell pattern; outermost border quilted in parallel pattern; inside borders quilted in herringbone pattern. The quilt has cotton batting/ filler.

Swag border is 13 5/8–14 1/2″ deep; border around central motif is 3 5/8″ on the right and left and 4 5/8″ on the top and bottom.

Central motif is appliqued with reverse buttonhole stitch (not used for border). Center panel is 54 to 54 3/4″ high and 55″ wide.

According to Colleen Callahan, curator of textiles, The Valentine, Richmond, Virginia, the layout used on this quilt (the diamond within a square) was a favorite choice for early patchwork bedcovers originating in the eastern part of Virginia and North Carolina in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

History:

The donor received this quilt from his mother, Frances Shelton Newby Williams, she from her parents, Mr. and Mrs. George Durant Newby, they from Mrs. Elizabeth Granbery Brace, who came to live with the Newbys at an early age, she from her mother, Bathsheba Gordon Brace, who received it from her mother, Elizabeth Granbery Gordon, who is thought to have made the quilt prior to her marriage in 1805. Donor further stated that the quilt reputedly won a prize at a local exhibition just prior to the Civil War.

Credit Line:

Gift of Mr. Alfred W. Williams