Charmayne's Quilling and Curly Cues

This newspaper article came in an eBay auction of quilling paper, tools, samples, and vintage instruction booklets. As it is hard to read, I have re-typed it below. If you look closely at the newspaper article, part of the information about dinner plates has mistakenly been incorporated into the quilling article and perhaps a sentence left out. There is not a date on the article but given the selling prices of houses on the flip side, this is an old article! Houses being offered for $25,300 to $32,000 have not been seen for some time! Note that the article says, “Quill-work is a craft form from an earlier day that is no longer made.” Not so true!

Know your antiques

Old quillwork rarely survived

by RALPH and TERRY KOVEL

Ordinary materials were crafted into unusual, decorative home furnishings as far back as the 18 century. Quill-work is a craft form from an earlier day that is no longer made.

This type of craft was known as early as the 15^th century but the best examples are English from the late 19^th century. Only a few American quillwork pieces are known. Many religious, middle-European 19^th-century pieces were made.

Quillwork is a filigree paperwork. Small pieces of paper were tightly rolled until they resembled cigarettes. The end of each rolled paper, where the tobacco would show in a real cigarette, was placed so it could be seen. So small rolls were glued into frames or on sides of small boxes.

The rolls were adjusted to form mosaic-like patterns. Often gold or another color was added to make the paper edges look more like metal filigree. Examples of quillwork are rare today. The perishable nature of the paper made it difficult to preserve.

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The above picture links to the full sized scan of the article.