Minor Pattern Variation=Major Rabbit Hole

Rebecca Haarer had a pattern name question on one of the quilt sites. What would you call this design? We all said Democrat Rose, Whig Rose or Rose of Sharon. It's quite common.

The Rose of Sharon is a good name. This one by Charlotte Raynor

is in the Shelburne Museum's collection.

Democrat Rose from Marie Webster's 1915 book.

The pattern is one of the most popular appliques in the 1840-1880 period.

There are many example in my Encyclopedia of Applique, filed as 4+4 blocks

(Four motifs north/south axis---Four different repeats on the diagonal.)

One of the elements is a comb, a spiky shape.

The Encyclopedia of Applique number is 18

Spice Pink from Ruth Finley's 1929 book

Rebecca said No, and pointed out the center floral---“Conjoined cock’s combs." She wrote:

"I’ve been contemplating the differences. It almost seems as though this maker combined the 'rooster combs' of the Democratic rose into one blossom. Most of the Whig roses don’t have spiky but the more common rounded flower petal shapes."

She's right. I did a little digital altering of Charlotte Raynor's block

to show it with a circle of spiky points rather than 4 separate combs.

It took me a while to find other vintage quilts with the same construction, mainly because I was looking the 4+4 files. With one circular spiky shape in the center it's more like a #12.8xx

Center floral plus 4 identical arms.

EBay seller GB-Best

From the Western Pennsylvania project and the Quilt Index.

There are not a lot of these spiky centers with the rotating arms.

Collection of the International Quilt Study Center

 & Museum #1997_007_0792

Sometimes the difference is subtle between 4 combs or 1 circle.

Late 19th-century variation. 

Guess based on the way the green has faded to tan.

Here's a real beauty. Source?

Found it at the Kansas State Historical Society

By Jane Brooks McCurdy (1834-?) Ohio.

Mid-19th century

Rebecca wanted to know because she is working with a decorator at the Carlisle Inn in Sarasota Florida to name each floor after a quilt block pattern.