Antique Quilts - 5598 1890 -1910  Crazy
In velvets from Madelaine Bowman's Oklahoma City estate. Great paisley and rich Victorian velvets. Love the daisy center. Tied with original silky navy back with batting. Slight fading on binding. Otherwise excellent condition. 71" x 77" $299ND

Antique Quilts 5645
1917 Tobacco Flannel Flags Newly quilted by 92 year old Opal Baum, Oklahoma City with cable and outline quilting @ 5 st/in. Historic WWI tobacco company give-away premiums that were saved by women to make into quilts. 36" x 64" MINT Condition    $495

 

Antique Quilts 5651
Civil War Patriotic Star Blocks newly quilted by 92 year olf Opal Baum, Oklahoma City. Outline and cable quilting @ 5 st/in. Minor staining on 1860s blocks, otherwise mint. 73" x 108" $995

Sept. 6, 1931 - Oct. 3, 2011 OKLAHOMA CITY Barry Ray Simms, Attorney, died Oct. 3, 2011, in Okla. City of pleural effusion. He was born Sept. 6, 1931, in Lindsay, OK to Thomas K. and Irene Spencer Simms. His father became a rancher after a movie career as a stunt man. His mother was an original Chickasaw enrollee and school teacher. Barry was proud of his Chickasaw enrollment. In 2009 the Okla. Bar Assoc. honored him for 50 years of dedicated service. He received distinguished awards for his pro bono legal work and continued an active law practice until his death. Many thanks go to his clients for their loyalty and friendship. Barry had a zest for life. He was mischievous, energetic, bright, spontaneous, and an adventurer. Barry was a pilot and at age 79 started skydiving. Recently, he went to Dubai and flew a private plane into Iran for a client. He once crashed with his mother watching, stating she never worried again. Barry could be found exploring the Amazon, riding a camel in Egypt, relaxing in the Bahamas, or visting Las Vegas. He graduated Kemper Military Academy and served in the U.S. Army. He attended OSU, and received his law degree from OU. Barry supported many social and civil organizations such as the Registry, the Alliance, the Committee, the Arts Museum, Lyric, and Philharmonic. He was known for his July 4th hot dog parties. He had 27 years of sobriety and believed one day at a time. Barry was a Mason, a Democrat, and a Baptist.
     (Whig & Democrat Rose) patterns became popular when the Democrat and Whig parties were vying for presidency in the early 1830s-1850s. Before women could vote, they voiced their political choices through the  quilt pattern they made for their husband and guests to sleep beneath?
Most families lived in homes that had a main room with a cooking hearth. Off to one side a room was added for the parents bedroom and the loft provided a space for the rest of the family to sleep. Sometimes the youngest children or elderly members slept in the main living area which held the “large good bed.” This was the guest bed and usually was a trundle bed where visiting friends and family slept. Also travelers would stop at a home on the main roads and ask to stay the night because there were few inns. The travelers would pay for their lodgings and bring news from other towns.Women took pride in showing off and displaying her needle skills and talents on the good bed with the best feather ticks, linens and quilts. Enterprising ladies would place a sign on the main roads to invite travelers to their homes in order to supplement their families’ income.
     Elections were held in early May after the roads were passable or in early November before winter weather and when they didn’t interfere with planting and harvesting crops. Voters traveled long distances to the polling places and arrived early enough to take part in the electioneering. Everyone who had a room for guests would open their homes up to the voters. Sometimes these homes would have quilts displayed to express political support for a party. Quilts made from new fabrics were an expensive luxury in the first half of the 19th century. All the fashions leaders were the wealthy ladies who had time to make fine appliquéd quilts. Most wealthy families supported the Whig Party and expressed it with a Whig Rose quilt pattern. Traditionally it was made in madder red, pink, chrome yellow and green on white muslin. The quilters also made a version of the Whig Rose pattern that they called the Democratic Rose that was less elaborate and more folk arty and the pink sometimes would have been replaced with cheddar orange or peach like this quilt.
    Being such a beautiful appliqué pattern, many ladies even in rural areas made a version of this quilt to decorate their homes following the fashion of the time. The pattern also supported the Whig Party platform to build public schools and normal schools to train women teachers to educate children to build a better economy for the country. Public schools were a radical new idea in education that would have appealed to mothers.
     Indians used lots of orange in their quilts and quilts were part of their heritage, especially the star quilts which were used as giveaways anytime a baby was born or someone died and any event in between. The brides all made at least 1 quilt to take into their new homes for partitions or as shelters in ceremonial events and worn by healers. The Chickasaw Indians came from MISS, KY, Al & TN in 1837 in the Trail of Tears to south central OK. Known as the “unconquered and unconquerable” the Chickasaw Nation’s Mounted Regiment fought in the Civil War and became successful farmers and ranchers and built the first schools, banks and businesses in Indian Territory.