Appraisal: Princess Feather Appliqué Quilt, ca. 1880

GUEST: I found it in the closet of my aunt who lived in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, at the time.

GUEST: And when I opened it up, my heart just went pitter-patter.

It was, like, wow.

And, uh, she was nearing the end of her life.

GUEST: And I asked her if I could have this after she passed, and she said I could.

Pretty much, it's been wrapped up in a pillowcase for a while.

APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.

GUEST: There are a lot of hearts in here, and I didn't know if the hearts mean anything in a kind of quilt like this.

APPRAISER: I felt the same way you did when you opened it up at the table.

It's an extraordinarily beautiful quilt.

It's extremely graphic.

You know, you've got this bold, red center in the princess feather design with a reverse appliqué here.

And it's very unusual that they also did the corners, the four corners of the quilt, with the princess feather.

Whoever did this had a tremendous artistic sense.

That's the person who created the top.

Generally, they were quilted by a group of women in a quilting bee or a quilting society, where they would have the large quilting frame that they could put it on.

You had mentioned the hearts, and it's, there are hearts quilted throughout this piece, almost in a four-leaf-clover pattern.

There's groupings of four hearts here.

Then again, repeated again, and that's just a really lovely touch.

It's very finely quilted.

Very tiny little diamonds all the way through it, which is another thing that really sets it off.

The design is so graphic and modern, and yet the quilting, it does date it back to the 1880s or late 19th century, when it was probably made.

We can't be positive because there's no dating on it, but it's just a spectacular piece of work.

GUEST: Is this, uh, typical of that time or the amount of, um, intricacy that goes into it?

APPRAISER: In, uh, in the really good, high-quality quilts, yes.

GUEST: Ah.

APPRAISER: The pattern itself is not typical for that time.

GUEST: Uh-huh.

APPRAISER: You know, it's very unusual.

I think it's probably an original pattern.

You know, you see the princess feather, but generally on a smaller scale.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: Quilts have gone up and down in value.

They were much higher in the '80s and '90s than they are now, but they are continuing to rise again.

So I would put a retail value on this quilt between $3,500 and $4,500.

And it could go higher if all the cards land in the right place.

(chuckles) Okay?

GUEST: Okay, great, that's wonderful.

APPRAISER: It's a beautiful piece.

GUEST: Oh, thank you.

APPRAISER: And it's in great condition.

GUEST: Thank you, thank you.

APPRAISER: You're a lucky man.

GUEST: I am.