Although the block printed fabric in this quilt was made in England, its meandering vines, sporting several types of blossoms and seed pods, are reminiscent of Indian textiles that were fashionable in Europe and America during the eighteenth century. English printers took advantage of the popular appeal for exotic Indian textiles by designing their own versions, which were less expensive than imported fabrics.

 

The quilt descended through the Van Rensselear family of Albany. Its indigo printed fabric and border were probably salvaged from a set of late eighteenth-century bed hangings and made into a quilt sometime in the nineteenth century.