Broderie Perse

by Steffani McChesney

I can’t pronounce it but I love these beautiful quilts. The term is a French one meaning Persian embroidery. So how did it become the name of a quilting technique? It’s a long story.

Chintz was first imported to England in the early 1600s from India. The fabrics were not popular until the Indian manufacturers began designing prints based on favorite themes from English art such as flowers and birds. Later, by the 1700s, when Oriental themes became popular these were added to the existing designs making wonderfully fanciful fabrics which were instantly popular. The name remained, possibly because the prints now resembled Persian rugs also being imported into England and the rest of Europe.

The popularity of the imported cottons alarmed the English textile manufacturers who were worried about their wool and silk trade. This prompted a ban on the import of printed cottons. What little did get in was so costly that even rich women couldn’t afford them. Women resorted to having their relatives bring back a yard of the printed chintz when they traveled abroad. A yard of fabric was easy to conceal from the customs inspectors. The designs were then cut out of the cloth and appliquéd on a plain muslin background. Some were left unlined for use as summer bedcovers for guests while others were elaborately quilted.

These quilts were sometimes called one-yard quilts and the results could be spectacular. They offered a skilled needlewoman an opportunity to show off her fine appliqué and left ample room to showcase intricate quilting in the large open white spaces.

Because of their cost and the time needed to produce them, broderie perse quilts were only used for show so there are many fine examples remaining in museums in both England and the US.

Early broderie perse quilts were, in essence, whole cloth quilts with appliqué, but after 1840 chintz became more available because America began printing the popular cotton fabric. Broderie perse began to be used in pieced quilts with a motif appliquéd in a square and used as part of a patchwork design. Chintz patchwork was also used in borders.

Looking back on the evolution of broderie perse, one can only think that women of all social backgrounds and levels of affluence have always been able to overcome any barrier to getting what they wanted when it came to quilting. In modern parlance, “Right on.”