Animal Crazy Quilt, ca. 1900

Appraised on: June 30, 2007

Appraised in: Orlando, Florida

Appraised by: Ronald Bourgeault

Category: Folk Art

Episode Info: Orlando, Hour 3 (#1206)

Originally Aired: February 11, 2008

IMAGE: 1 of 2  

Appraisal Video: (2:08)

GUEST: As I understand it from my mother, it was made by my great-grandmother. Um... and they lived in Indiana. It must be somewhere around a hundred years old. That's all I know about it.

APPRAISER: I have never seen a more wonderful patchwork quilt. The condition is incredible. The unusual thing here is that it's done on a wool background, and very few of them were. All of the needlework is done in wool also. So it's really an embroidered quilt. The more I looked at it, there were just a dozen more things that I wanted to point out. Tell me what your two favorite things are in the quilt.

GUEST: Oh, gosh. That's so hard to say. It looks like there's, like, an ibis, almost an Egyptian ibis there with that kind of coloration. There's a platypus over here. I mean, these are things that I-I have no idea how my great-grandmother would have gotten the images so good, because I'm sure she never actually saw them real-life.

APPRAISER: She must have had a book on animals to have done it.

GUEST: Yeah, absolutely.

APPRAISER: Well, my favorite is Noah and the ark up here. And she must have been religious because we've got the Bible here. There are just so many different things here. The knife, fork and spoon and the scissors. I've just never seen more wonderful objects so beautifully stitched. Now, what do you do to preserve this?

GUEST: We store it in a cedar-lined chest and we just fold it loosely in there. We just try to keep it out of the light and away from moths and air conditioning, so...

APPRAISER: Okay, well, moths are the most important thing to keep it away from. And you should, four times a year, take it out and refold it so you don't get fold creases. And, now, have you ever had it appraised?

GUEST: No, we've never...

APPRAISER: Do you have insurance on it?

GUEST: No, I have no idea on value.

APPRAISER: Well, I want you to go home and insure it for $10,000.

GUEST: Wow.