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CIGARETTE QUILTS

Stories from the MRHC quilt collection

A cigarette silk piece from the Marquette Regional History Center's collection is seen. (Photo courtesy of the Marquette Regional History Center)

MARQUETTE — In 2015 the Marquette Regional History Museum was awarded a grant by the Michigan Quilt Network to aid in the indexing of their entire quilt collection. In addition to indexing of the museum quilts, the grant was to be used to aid in the preservation and conservation of the museum’s quilts. The grant further provided the means for educational quilting programs to benefit the general public.

Using the grant provided by MQN, we began work at the museum in November 2015 to index and photograph all of the museum’s comprehensive quilt collection. In total 68 items were studied, documented and photographed. When completed in June 2016, the index was forwarded to the MSU Quilt Study Center where it was added to over 75000 quilts worldwide that are a part of the Michigan Quilt Index.

As our work progressed with the documentation and indexing of the museum’s quilts, we grew to understand the tremendous importance of the museum’s quilt collection and the many very significant quilts it contains. Several of the quilts would be treasured and are equal to quilts in collections in major museums throughout the country.

All quilts tell a story and as we explored the museum quilts, many of those interesting stories began to unfold. In this article, we’d like to tell you the story of “Cigarette Silks” and we look forward to sharing other stories in future articles.

The later 1800s were the height of the Victorian period where homes could not have enough embellishment. The culture of the times was full of symbolism, poetry and romance. Women threw themselves into decorating every inch of their homes using their artistic abilities in needlework, oil painting and arrangement of fancy embellishments.

During this same period, cigar companies sold their cigars in bundles tied with a silk ribbon. The ribbons had either printed or woven designs depending on the company and they were eagerly collected to incorporate into decorative items for the home.

In the very early 1900s cigarette companies adopted a similar advertising ploy and began inserting a “silk” into each cigarette package where formerly there had only been a trading card of a sports figure (or other motif), while more expensive brands required you to send in the coupons from their packages to obtain their “silks”. The “silks” were designed to increase cigarette sales to women either directly, or by encouraging them to ask their men to buy a particular brand and thereby increase their personal collection. “Silks” were desirable because, just as cigar ribbons, they could be sewn together for decorative purposes. Some cigarette companies further encouraged women by including directions for making decorative items in their packaging along with the “silk”.

“Silks” varied in quality, depending on the company. They could be silk, but were often rayon or a silk/cotton blend (which allowed for better color printing). The fabrics were always of a satin finish (a smooth shiny surface and dull back). Sizes varied, but all were roughly the size of a trading card or a bit larger. All “silks” were, however, printed in color and done in series. The series included a wide variety of subjects including trees, animals, birds, butterflies, flowers, national flags, ethnic costumes, famous citizens, U.S. presidents, European royalty, actors and actresses, Indian chiefs, military generals, guns, or military insignia. The desire to have a complete series for a project further encouraged sales of a particular brand of cigarette.

After a number of “silks” were collected, they were often sewn together to create decorative items such as table cloths, quilts, or pillow covers. Occasionally someone created a more detailed project. Research revealed one industrious seamstress who created an entire robe from cigarette “silks”, requiring both a large amount of “silks” and time to complete.

By 1922, the cigarette “silk” era was mostly over (except for a brief resurgence in the 1930s). However, today’s collectors can still find them on eBay at varying, but mostly inexpensive, prices.

Marquette Regional History Center has 2 pieces made of cigarette “silks” in their collection. One is unfinished, about 18” x 15″. The other is a pillow cover (27“x 22”) with a cotton backing made of a rye flour sack from Neenah, WI. In both, a variety of “silks” are hand-stitched together to create the rectangles. The pieces were donated to the museum in 1991 by Jean Prossen. The maker is unknown. In addition we found cigarette silks used as embellishment in some of the museum crazy quilts.

Complete documentation and photographs of the MRHC Quilt Index may be viewed at: http://www.quiltindex.org/contributor.php?kid=1E-B9-0. In addition, a free handout is available at the museum entitled “Our Quilting Legacy: Why Quilts Matter.”

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