Bill’s first quilt was a masterpiece New York Beauty, but nearly 20 years after he bought it, he learned it was most likely called a Rocky Mountain Road.
The Volckening Collection - One Pattern, Many Names
Rocky Mountain Road / New York Beauty
Why the confusion? Quilts of either name usually share the same basic pattern: spiked quarter circles wedged in each corner of the block. To view sample blocks, click here. The earliest examples date to the mid-19th century, but the name New York Beauty was coined in 1930, when the Stearns and Foster Mountain Mist company released a pattern with that name.
So, what are the ramifications for quilts made before 1930? Most people call those quilts New York Beauties, too. The name is very widely accepted. A recent search of the Quilt Index showed as many as 18 names for the pattern, but a majority of the pre-1930 quilts that weren’t classified as New York Beauty were called Rocky Mountain Road or a derivative name.
Rocky Mountain Road, maker unknown, c. 1860
The Volckening Collection includes nearly 20 examples of the New York Beauty and Rocky Mountain Road. The group of quilts represents more than 150 years of quilt making, and is the subject of a short documentary film, Beauty Secrets, which premiered at the NW Documentary Homegrown Docfest in August, 2009. These quilts will be exhibited at the Benton County Historical Museum in Philomath as part of Quilt County 2011.
Copyright © 2010 The Volckening Collection
