Antique quilts & coverlets, 1800 to 1960
Hand-pieced, hand-quilted and hand-woven American bedcovers, collected over more than thirty years and described piece by piece: dates, measurements, stitches per inch, and every flaw we found.
Every piece is for sale on eBay.
Thirty years of collecting antique American quilts
Historic American Quilts is a family business. For more than thirty years my grandmother collected antique American quilts and coverlets, many of them from the Midwest: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Wisconsin and Michigan.
Today I look after the collection and handle every listing, question and shipment myself.
Every antique quilt is a small piece of American history, written in cloth by women whose stories rarely made it into the history books.
You can read the times in the fabric. Calicos became affordable in the 1840s as American mills grew, and sewing machines began reaching ordinary homes in the 1850s. Dyes, prints and patterns changed decade by decade: the madder reds and indigos of the early republic, the somber mourning prints of the late 1800s, the pastel kit quilts of the 1920s and 30s. Quilts celebrated marriages, raised money during the Civil War, and kept frontier cabins warm. Many carry a maker's initials or name, and with them a family's story.
Each listing is written from the piece itself. We date by fabric, construction and quilting, measure in inches, count stitches per inch, and note stains, fading and repairs, so you know what you are buying before it arrives.
Ian Woodford
- Quilt
- A bedcover sewn in layers: a pieced or appliquéd top, usually a thin middle batting, and a backing, all held together by rows of quilting stitches. The top may be pieced from many small shapes sewn edge to edge, or appliquéd, with shapes stitched onto a background.
- Coverlet
- A bedcover woven on a loom as a single cloth, often in wool with cotton or linen. Its pattern is woven in, not sewn. Many 19th-century coverlets were made by professional weavers, who often wove a name, place or date into a corner.
How buying works
- Choose a piece hereEvery photo and description on this site matches its eBay listing.
- Buy it on eBayTap “Buy on eBay” to go straight to the listing. Checkout, payment and eBay's Money Back Guarantee all apply.
- We ship it to youPieces ship from Wenatchee, Washington. Shipping cost and delivery time are shown on each listing.
Contact
Questions about a piece, its history, or its condition? Email me and I'll get back to you.
You can also ask a question directly on any eBay listing.