Antique Hand-forged Iron Quilting Clamp with Big Heart (One of Two More Just Found) spoon rest as so many 19th century

as so many 19th century folk art drawings and paintings were

and about as elemental/primordial feeling as it gets

and a light house in the near distance

9 1/2" x 6 1/2"

1869 to 1873

Antique Hand-forged Iron Quilting Clamp with Big Heart (One of Two More Just Found) spoon rest as so many 19th centuryThe is a 19th century hand forged iron quilting clamp, with one of this sort often referred to as a "heart clamp" for the heart shaped finial on the screw. It would have been used for clamping the fabric layers of a quilt (top, batting, backing) to the rails of a frame while working it (sparing the quiltmaking from laborious pinning, etc.) Once a month I go up to midcoast Maine for a show, and once a month, for a few months now, I bring home an old