thousand pyramids antique quilt top

The Thousand Pyramids quilt design is  a fairly simple one in that it is just a series of triangles sewn together.  It's an old pattern - according to this website by 1820 the pieced patterns Irish Chain, Double Irish Chain, Clamshell, and Thousand Pyramids are known. 

Basically it's a one- patch constructed with a single, repeating equilateral triangle shape.

Grandmother's Flower Garden, made from hexagons, is a one patch quilt. Thousand Pyramids and Tumbling Blocks are two more examples of one patch quilts.

Sounds boring?

 

 

What makes the design complex  and endlessly fascinating is the placement and color combinations of these triangles....and of course the fabrics!

 

  ...browns, paprikas, paisleys, garibaldi reds...

 ...chrome yellow...

 ...boofy florals, indigos, cinnamon pinks and a multitude more...

A veritable bank account of mid-nineteenth century fabric treasures!  
Hand pieced into long rows, then machine assembled.

I would love to know the origin of the name but guess it may be vaguely related to the Egyptology craze of the early nineteenth century following the many archaeological discoveries around Giza.

Totally random:

In 1827, female science fiction author Jane C. Loudon wrote the novel The Mummy! A Tale of the 22nd Century. The story describes the citizens of the 22nd century, which became technically high advanced at one side, but totally immoral on the other side. Only the mummy of Khufu can save them!

More random Egyptian silliness:

Mummy unrolling: Egypt fascinated the English in the early nineteenth century.  In 1833 Thomas Pettigrew, who became the most famous of the unrollers, purchased a mummy in an auction for 23 British pounds. He'd already unrolled one mummy more than ten years before for a friend. He took his purchase to the lecture hall of Charing Cross Hospital where Pettigrew was an anatomy professor. There was a full house the night Pettigrew did the unwrapping and soon unwrappings became a full-fledged fad.  Pettigrew was soon unwrapping to standing-room only crowds in such places as the lecture hall of the Royal Institute. In 1834 Pettigrew gave a 6 lecture course of Egyptian Antiquities culminating in the unwrapping of an actual mummy. Front seats were sold for a guinea, back seats for half a guinea.

Anyhow, this top is now on the (ever growing) list to be hand quilted, I know I will enjoy every minute of the process. And I might do a bit more research into nineteenth century Egyptian fads!

xo

k