[HNW] Yet another Definition needed

[Allison263@aol.com]

In a message dated 4/8/04 1:51:58 AM, wandap at hevanet.com writes:

<< Makes me wonder if they weren't what we think of as tied

quilts today.   >>

I suspect that quilts were made similarly to quilted garments, because there 
is evidence to suggest that 15th and 16th century quiltmakers were affiliated 
with makers of cotton garments. If my memory is working pre coffee, there are 
at least two extant quilted leather jerkins that date to the 16th century that 
were made by stuffing channels of stitches with wool (one at the Met, one in 
Arnold's Patterns of Fashion, but I don't recall where it's housed). In the 
book "The Italian Cotton Industry in the Later Middle Ages 1100-1600" by Maureen 
Mazzaoui, there are several brief references to the fact that some 
quiltmakers' guilds were associated or combined with doublet makers and 
cotton-manufacturing guilds, but there are no descriptions of how the quilts were actually 
made. These quilts were considered 'household furnishings,' suggesting that they 
were bedclothes or coverings of some kind. Here are just two of several:

P. 111: 
"In February 1503 the Venetion guild of quilt makers presented a formal 
petition requesting permission to unite with the corporation of fustagnari.  . . . 
.The quilt makers pointed out the close affinity of products and the 
involvement of many cotton-cloth producers in the quilt trade."

P. 203, note 53
"In Barcelona doublet and quilt makers also worked under the general auspices 
of the cotton and tailoring guilds."  

This is only my own personal theory, though, and I have (thus far) only a few 
too-short written sources to support it. It's also very possible that later 
period quilts were constructed in the trapunto technique, similar to the 
Tristan and Isolde quilt. At this point it's mostly guesswork, though, since there 
are so few extant quilted objects from pre 1600.

Regards,
Gabrielle