18th May, 2019 11:30 GMT/BST

Costume, Accessories & Textiles

 
Lot 2040
 

2040

Canadian Red Cross Society Quilt 1939-45, worked in pretty printed cottons in the log cabin design

Canadian Red Cross Society Quilt 1939-45, worked in pretty printed cottons in the log cabin design, curved corners, quilted, cream to the reverse, embroidered with the date '1939' in red, and stitched with a red cross label, 156cm by 186cm

Provenance: Jan Hassard Heritage Collection of Quilts – Part 1

Jan Hassard, 'I was born in Purley, Surrey during WW2.  At 6.30am on Tuesday 31st 1944, my parents heard the unmistakable drone of a flying bomb.  The bomb then cut out and they knew they had two minutes until it exploded on hitting the ground.  My mother went into the front bedroom where I was lying in a cot under the window (which subsequently blew in) and took me into the back bedroom with them, and the bomb scored a direct hit on a hotel immediately opposite our house.  Seventeen people were killed.'

'The house was effectively 'bombed out', and we were taken to what one would today call a reception centre.  I don't know how long we were there, but we then travelled to our relatives in Somerset, where we stayed for the rest of the war.  Whilst we were at this centre, we were issued with two Canadian Red Cross Quilts.  One, which I don't remember appears to have been a kind of candlewick quilt, whilst the other was a Dresden pattern plate, which stayed on my bed when we returned home until I was 11.  In 1955 the room was re-decorated, and my mother gave the two quilts to the rag and bone man.  She has since affirmed that this is actually true and not family hearsay, as they represented an unfortunate time in her life, and held no value to her.'
Jan has since been researching these quilts, both the makers and recipients.
Production began in the National Workroom by 1st October 1939.  On December 31 1940 $93808 Canadian dollars' worth of relief quilts, bed covers and Afghans were shipped, by 1942  148,173 quilts and bed covers were sent.  
The Quilters Guild did a heritage search between 1990-1993, they reported that 25,000 Canadian Red Cross Quilts were distributed between a six week period in October 1944, but only 54 were later documented during their search.
The distribution of these quilts in Britain were mainly in the hands of  the WVS, the Salvation Army and the ARP.
 
Not Sold

 

. Log cabin quilt - Some fading to the fabrics. Some of the darker brown fabrics are worn, a couple of areas of brown stains, couple of light stains to the reverse.

 


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Auction: Costume, Accessories & Textiles, 18th May, 2019

Costume, Accessories & Textiles

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