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This exhibition may not be the largest group of quilts ever assembled, but the focus of the collectors "was nothing short of amazing," states Melissa Post, curator at the Mint Museum of Craft + Design in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Melissa is referring to American Quilt Classics 1800-1980: The Charles and Fleur Bresler Collection, on display through January 4 at MMC+D. Included in the 37 quilts donated by the Rockville, Maryland, couple are examples of white work, indigo resist, and block-printed chintz from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries; applique, stenciled, mosaic template-pieced, and album quilts from the mid-1800s; Log Cabin, crazy, and charm quilts from the late nineteenth century, and a group of Amish pieced quilts from the twentieth century. Ten of the quilts are rare smaller doll, crib, or child-sized quilts.
The quilts in the exhibit were collected over a 20-year period by Fleur Bresler, who worked as a volunteer docent under the direction of the curator of the textiles collection for the Division of Social History at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History. There she was introduced to the writings of textile and quilt historians Barbara Brackman, Florence Montgomery, Patsy Orlofsky, and Florence Pettit.
"That was my education and the impetus for my quilt collecting," says Fleur. "Being at the Smithsonian opened my eyes to the possibility of creating a small, representative group of quilts with historical significance."
Melissa says MMC+D was especially pleased to accept the donation of the quilts, as "...very few gifts or collections come to a museum with the extent of research, provenance, condition reports, and correspondence history that came with the Bresler Collection."
An exhibition catalogue, with original research and an essay by quilt historian Merikay Waldvogel, is available at the museum. Phone 704-337-2038; sfisher@mintmuseum.org.
MMC+D is located at 220 N. Tryon St., Charlotte, NC; 704-337-2000; website www.mintmuseum.org.
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