A Fine and Rare Painted and Stencilled Homespun Linen Bed Cover, Lucy Vilas, Windham, Connecticut, circa 1830

the central panel with trees bearing pink and yellow stencilled fruit and leaves, below vines with pink berries and roses; the borders with large clusters of purple grape vines; fashioned to fit a four-poster bed; some minor stain and fabric loss at the top.

Lucy Vilas was the daughter of Moses and Mercy Flint Vilas and a sister of Levi Baker Vilas, she married Perry Haskell in 1833. She died in 1837.  Lucy kept a diary, which descended in her family, chronicling her trips to find a cure for her tuberculosis.

Excerpted from Robert Bishop, America's Quilts and Coverlets, E.P. Dutton, New York, 1974: "The stencil spread is a lovely and fascinating product of the period, approximately from 1820 to 1840, that produced handsomely stenciled walls, floors, and furniture, chiefly in the eastern states.  The stencil quilt seems to have been intended more to decorate a bed than used for warmth, for only a very few quilted examples are known.  Examples of stencil quilts are very rare now, and it is a curious fact that most examples that do exist are almost new in appearance.  The fashion for such coverlets seems to have been limited to rural areas.

The American Museum in Bath, England, owns a fine example of a quilted stencil spread from Connecticut.  The museums at Cooperstown, New York, Shelburne, Vermont, and the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, have examples of stencil spreads all done on muslin or fine linen.  Stenciled tablecloths and table scarves are found more often than bedspreads."