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DESCRIPTION
Hang this on a wall and the room changes. Dozens of antique tobacco silks - actress portraits in pink, blue, lavender and gold alongside floral silks printed with their flower names - are hand-stitched into a single pinwheel pillow top, every seam outlined in colored feather and chain stitching. The whole piece sits under glass in a round frame with a braided cord hanger and two tassels, ready to hang.
Pieces like this exist because of a short-lived American fad. Between about 1910 and 1915, cigarette companies tucked small printed satin pictures - tobacco silks - into packs and offered larger ones in exchange for coupons. Women saved them and sewed them into pillow tops, quilts and wall hangings for their own homes, each one planned and stitched by hand, and no two were ever alike. This is one of the survivors.
Look closer and the details keep paying off. At the center sit two large gold actress silks printed with facsimile signatures - one reads "Ethel Green," the other "Eugenie Blair" - and one interior silk still carries its printed tobacco factory stamp, "FACTORY NO. 42," a genuine period production mark shown in the last photo.
If you collect tobacco memorabilia, crazy quilts, or early 1900s textile art, this is the kind of piece that anchors a display and starts conversations. It is also a true one-of-one: handmade, antique, and when it is gone there is not another one to buy.
CONTENTS
- Round pillow top hand-stitched from tobacco cigarette silks, c.1910-1915
- Floral series silks with printed names, including American Beauty Rose, Swamp Rose, Iris and Digitalis
- Actress portrait silks in gold, pink, blue and lavender, two large center silks with printed facsimile signatures
- Colored embroidery along every seam
- Round frame with glass front and red rim (rim appears to be plastic), braided cord hanger with two tassels
MEASUREMENTS
CONDITION
Good overall for an antique textile, with strong color throughout. The center Ethel Green silk has a horizontal split across the portrait. One blue actress silk and the floral silk beside it show horizontal puckering and silk shattering. Other portraits and silks in the piece may also show silk shattering, small splits, puckering, thinning or fading that is not individually noted - fragile tobacco silks of this age commonly show this kind of wear throughout, and it should be expected anywhere on the piece. Several portraits are faded. The pillow back has been opened and there are loose threads inside; the blue backing cloth is unevenly faded; the brown paper dust cover on the back of the frame is torn and cracked in places. Please examine closely for exact condition.
SHIPPING & RETURNS
Free US Shipping / 30 day returns - Must be returned in original condition.
