A Brief History of the Quilt
By Carol Schwartzott
Freeville, New York: Carol Schwartzott, 2022. Edition of 20.

3 x 2 7/8", 62 pages. Printed with pigmented/archival ink on Mohawk Vellum. Accordion-fold in flutter construction. Cloth boards with printed title label on spine and quilt collage on front board. Housed in drop-lid box with printed title label on spine and tipped on paper collages on the front of box, interior front board and bottom of box exterior. Signed and numbered by the artist.

Carol Schwartzott: "'A Brief History of the Quilt' was first issued in 1996. The National Museum of Women held a yearly competition for women book artists. The chosen book was given a grant to create/print/bind in an edition of 125 copies - 100 to the Museum and 25 held back to the artist. My Quilt book was imagined to be a co-operative adventure, with actual quilt pages made by selected hand-quilters from America. Each of these 'quilt' would be editions in groups of 25 (these were small examples) with enough actual hand quilted examples distributed within the 125 copies. Each of the elected 25 women would each get one book in return for her contribution. These 25 were those designated to the artist. The book was a close win. The committee was not sure I could pull this off. A year or so later I produced the little boxed version of this Brief History, using paper examples rather than fabric.

"The past two years have been a time of examining some of my projects - some finalized, and others just ideas. I thought it would be fun to re-invent the quilt book in a miniature form. I have been active in the MBS [Miniature Book Society] for the past two years, re-visiting my book roots.

“In this period, I have completed an edition of 20 minis of ‘A Brief History of the Quilt’. Eight of these reside within a wooden cabinet of sorts. The cabinet displays a quilt fragment, and some sewing tools.”
$95 Clamshell box edition