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I am a quilter living in Woodbridge, Suffolk who has made quilts since I was a teenager. I also ring bells! Both are great British traditions....I will try to feature some of my antique Welsh and Durham quilts, the quilts I make myself, my quilting activities and also some of my bellringing achievements. Plus as many photos as I can manage. NB: Double click on the photos to see greater detail, then use back button to return to the main page.













Wednesday 12 December 2012

Dr.Dunton - Old Quilts

I brought this book home from Florida - it is a book that my father found. He loved to look in thrift shops for first editions....


It is a copy of Old Quilts by Dr W R Dunton of Catonsville Maryland. Dunton was a doctor who became interested in antique quilts - the book was published at his own expense in 1946 and only 2000 were ever printed - so I am lucky to have a copy. It documents: Album Quilts, Appliqued Chintz Quilts, Tree of Life Quilts, Framed Medallion and Plain Quilts. The price in pencil inside the cover is $4.00.

So... I was very interested to see a mention of Dr Dunton's book in William Volckening's quilt blog WonkyWorld post for Sept 29th - link here:


Bill (who seems to be a quilt collector with a deeper pocket than mine!) had bought a chintz medallion quilt which is very similar to the chintz quilts by Achsah Goodwin Williams - featured in the Dunton book.

Its a useful tool to have a collection of books at hand - I don't think that I would be keen on "Ebooks" for that reason...... just not the same.....at least you can read a hard copy book when the electricity goes off!!




My father Orville B Palmer worked for ETS in Princeton for many years and was an excellent writer. He collected first editions - his best find was a first edition Mark Twain book ( albeit not one of the more famous ones) at $25.00. He also found a first edition of The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck in a house that was being demolished in Hoboken (no dust jacket, though!) He built up a fine collection of books on the Midwest, which I think have gone to his alma mater's library at Oklahoma State.

The above photo was taken during WWII when Ruth and Orville were newlyweds - this was one of the very few photos from that time that could be found, but it was used on their 50th wedding anniversary invitation - taken with a Brownie Box camera?

My posts in this blog are approaching 300 - and I have had to start to pay for extra storage space, as I do not want to delete any of the photos or posts. Viewing numbers are above 120,000 now- so a big "thank you" to all those who are interested in old quilts and belllringing.

7 comments:

  1. You are so lucky to have a copy of Dr. Dunton's book! I've seen some of his correspondance when I lived in Baltimore and had a neighbor who had worked with him. Quite a character! (My Dad was in the Navy during WWII as well! He flew PBY's.)

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  2. Ohh my I hope you won't stop - you can link pictures, from flickr, that won't take up storage space on blogger (or any other picture storage programm, that way you will have the storage space for the text - just a thought.

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  3. Thank you for such an enjoyable blog.

    Judy

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  4. Thank you for blogging - I enjoy looking at the quilts you feature.

    Janet

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  5. Congratulations on acquiring a copy of the Dunton book! I found a copy at last but it cost me about $75. Your father has a good eye. I enjoy collecting antique quilt books and they come in handy when I want to learn more about quilt history. I wouldn't trade them for all the ebooks in cyberspace.

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  6. Score - what a great Dad! Even Taryn's $75 is great. I'm still looking for one. Current price is $150.00
    Love your blog

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  7. I would love to have a copy of that book but the price any time I checked was over 100 so hopefully one day I will find a copy in a used book store and be thrilled.
    my antique quilt book collection is priceless to me
    Kathie

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