Note from the designer - "This is a very graceful and finely stitched sampler, an unusual combination for the late date. Nine ethereal female figures, like penitents in an Edward Gorey cartoon, march solemnly about the sampler, paying homage to the house. The huge house appears to be welcoming... Read more
Note from the designer - "A classic Quaker sampler from the Delaware Valley, this sampler demonstrates the style and many of the motifs that make them so easy to identify. The inner oval vine-and-leaf cartouche surrounding the alphabets probably originated at the Westtown School in Chester... Read more
Note from the designer - "This very delicate Scottish sampler with its bold color scheme was designed with a four sided stylized honeysuckle border surrounding horizontal rows of illuminated alphabets and double running stitch motifs. The extensive use of double running stitch lends the sampler... Read more
Note from the designer - "This wonderful English sampler has to be an original inspired composition by a very clever young girl with a singular artistic vision! Potbellied cherubs fly trumpeting alongside a doughy, asexual Adam and Eve, beneath whom perch an enormous plumed Bird of Paradise on a... Read more
Note from the designer - "This Dover, Massachusetts, sampler features an unusual border surrounding alphabetical and numerical tests, and a four-line verse often found on early 19th century American samplers. The colors are remarkably well preserved. The maker, Ann Harding (who was actually... Read more
Note from the designer - "As the purpose for making samplers evolved over the decades and the centuries, so did its form. This beautiful early 18th century English band sampler retains the shape of her predecessors, but has clearly changed into a form distinctly recognizable as a product of her... Read more
Note from the designer - "This Quaker sampler came from the vicinity of York, England, where a Quaker school existed at the same time as the more famous Ackworth School, not far from there. The Parnell name is still fairly common in the district, and the family was Quaker.
Linen count and finished size: 35-count 18-3/4" x 24"; or 40 count 16-1/2" x 21"
There is so much going on in this fascinating English sampler that it's hard to know where to begin looking. Apart from the somewhat conventional Adam and Eve at the top center, adorable flying cherubs flank them and the apple tree, bearing gold rings and sprays of flowers. The verse is as... Read more
This is a pleasantly quirky, colorful sampler likely stitched in the north of England judging by some of the Scottish influences in the design. A four sided strawberry border surrounds an alphabet and a pious verse above a geometric pattern band. Below this is a scenic register with trees, birds,... Read more
This English sampler was made in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, featuring the Sheffield General Infirmary, a verse, a fashionably dressed man and woman, and a collection of animals in the lawn in front (sheep, fox, squirrels, rabbit, dog), all surrounded by a four sided berry border.
Note from the designer - "Elizabeth Eaton finished her sampler on the 21st of July in 1712. She used bold, primary colors suggestive of Scottish influence. The original sampler was stitched with both silk and fine wool threads on linen using cross, eyelet, rice, queen, herringbone, double... Read more
Adapted from an English sampler dated 1783. The original sampler from which this piece was adapted measures 15 1/2" x 12 1/2", and was stitched over one thread of linen on approximately 50-thread-count glazed linen. The house on the left alone, which measures 71 by 62 squares on the graph,... Read more
This letterndoek (lettering) form of Dutch sampler appears from the late 17th through the early 19th century. It is easy to recognize by its horizontal shape, and beautifully illuminated lettering, interspersed with various symbolic shapes and Biblical motifs. The color scheme used on so many of... Read more
Note from the designer - "This beautiful. petite, energetic sampler expressed three fine verses and, at the end, one of the truest "signatures" I've ever read on a piece of needlework:
By this ingenous Maids
may see what by the
needl wrought
may be
Note from the designer - "Elizabeth Mansfield finished her sampler in England on 13th June 1792, during the reign of King George III (1760-1820: note the cushioned crown in the upper third, marked on either side by the initials G R for George Rex). The original sampler was stitched on a very... Read more
According to a note attached to the back of the original sampler, it was probably made near Newtown, Pennsylvania. The attribution at the center is surrounded by a typical Quaker leafy cartouche with opposing flowers and facing birds above. Other characteristic Quaker motifs include eight point... Read more
Note from the designer: "This band sampler was designed after a piece in the collection of the Fitzwilliam Museum, most remarkable for the colorful, solidly filled geometric and floral sections. It also features double running stitch sections found on Italian embroideries of the sixteenth and... Read more
This English sampler combines embroidered pictorial, alphabetic, and upholstery techniques, becoming in every sense a sampler of Ms. Topham's best work. Bargello work (also known as canvaswork, Irish stitch, flamestitch, or Florentine stitch) appeared on the earliest seventeenth century samplers,... Read more
Note from the designer: "This northern German sampler consists of random symbolic spot motifs, with a simple zigzag border. Religious symbols are commonly found on continental samplers. On this example, we find the wreath carried by angels (the wreath as a symbol for eternal life): the ship... Read more
This sweet little American sampler features two little houses above alphabets and a short verse:
Would you be wise
Each moment prize
It is surrounded on four sides by a double sided satin stitched sawtooth border. Stitches used include cross, outline, stem filling, counted... Read more
Fanny Hancock's father, Ebenezer Hancock, was cousin to the famous John Hancock. Born in 1785, Fanny sewed her sampler at age 11. She married Nathaniel Parker of Boston in 1803, and died in 1834. The colors on the back side of her sampler retained much of their original brilliance, and are... Read more
Note from the designer: "This naive Adam and Eve sampler might have been made in Maryland around 1810. At first I believed that the sampler was either English or Irish, judging by the unusual surname, until, in my research, I came upon the gravestone of a Fanny H. Peachey, born 24 November 1799,... Read more
Note from the designer: "The characteristic that readily identifies the origin of this sampler is the distinctive vine and rose border, configured such that a leaf on one side and a rosebud stem on the other give the illusion of a double vine. It is almost always found executed in cross stitch... Read more
What makes this early Victorian English sampler so intriguing are the wonderfully naive figures of Adam, Eve and St. Michael flanking the Tree of Life. St. Michael's sword is drawn to slay the serpent, but he hardly looks formidable with his large feet and doughy body. Playskool-like Adam and Eve... Read more
Note from the designer: "This sampler was probably made in Rhode Island, a poor sister, perhaps, to the magnificent creations coming out of the girls' schools in Newport, Providence and Bristol at this same period, but bearing some similar "signatures". The squat, long-tailed bird at the... Read more
"Jesus permit thy Gracious name to stand as the first effort of an infant hand. And while her fingers on the canvas move, engage her tender thoughts to seek thy love. With thy dear children, let her have a part and write thy name thyself upon her heart."
Note from the designer: "This finely worked sampler features pastoral scenes above and below a lovely verse about friendship. A four-sided honeysuckle border surrounds large baskets of fruits and flowers, a fenced pasture with seven large lazy sheep and an architectural folly in the background.... Read more
Note from the designer: "This American band sampler was originally worked in Lynn, Massachusetts. Hannah Breed is mentioned in Bolton and Coe's authoritative book American Samplers. Rows of lettering are intermixed with a row of sheep and cows, a verse, and floral bands. The verse says:
Note from the designer: "Hannah Mosher was born March 12th, 1786, in Hollis, New Hampshire, the fourth and last child of Abijah and Hannah Mosher. On March 7, 1813, she married the Rev. Walter Chapin of Woodstock, Vermont. Apart from this sketchy biographical information, found in the History of... Read more
Note from the designer: "From Dover, Massachusetts, comes Harriot Boardman's sampler, originally worked on a distinctive green linsey-woolsey found only on some North Shore samplers. A three-sided sawtooth border surrounds alphabet and numeral tests with geometric cross bands, two deer with... Read more
Note from the designer: "A beautiful meandering four-sided floral border in an unusually rich color palette surrounds this traditional Scottish sampler, also featuring a beautiful arcaded floral band at the top and a substantial mansion house in the lower register. Trees, tulips and flying birds... Read more
Note from the designer: "This intricate and involved sampler features many traditional German sampler motifs dating from the sixteenth century including a large parrot, a peacock with silver tips on its wings, the Lamb of God, as well as a depiction of the Crucifixion flanked by Mother Mary and... Read more
Note from the designer: "This Scottish sampler features many distinguishing characteristics of samplers made in that country, most notably the arcaded pansy band across the top third, the four-sided floral border with double running stitch flourishes, and the famous mansion house. Of this large... Read more
This sampler was made in Scotland and includes many of the traditional motifs associated with samplermaking in this region. Firstly, Janet has included many initials of family members. However the initials at the center- G R 3 -refer to the then-reigning monarch, King George III. The flowering... Read more
This is a very finely stitched classic Scottish sampler featuring three complete rows of beautifully illuminated letters, an arcaded floral band as well as other traditional motifs including peacocks, birds drinking at the fountain of life, feather trees and family initials. A four sided berry... Read more
Note from the designer: "This Scottish sampler is a riot of brilliant color and intricate motifs, from the Scotsman in his kilt playing a traditional dulcimer (which looks like a butter churn) in the upper left, to an elaborate mansion house fronted by a three dimensional turkeywork lawn in the... Read more
Rose's unusual middle name should have provided some clues about where she was born, and where she lived, but the name "Shenamon" is elusive despite my efforts to discover its origins as well as hers. It is spelled many different ways when researched (including Shinimon and Schinnamon which... Read more
This English sampler comes from the collection of the late Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Jarrett, who established Witney Antiques. It was featured in one of their exhibition catalogs in December 1996 titled "All Creatures Great and Small."
The work is extremely fine and accomplished,... Read more
Note from the designer: This primitive marking sampler just captured my heart. The colors, the tone on tone, the rich patina and the whimsicalness of it. How can a marking sampler be whimsical you ask? Well, just look at the script K, L & M. They seem to be kicking up their heels and skipping along.... Read more
This sampler is an adaptation from a sampler in my collection. This chart contains the pattern for the scissor fob shown along with all finishing instructions.
Model stitched over two threads on 36 ct Straw from Weeks Dye Works using Weeks Dye Works threads. Stitch count is 204w x 76h. Finished size is 11.33" x 4.22". Finished Size of Pinkeep: 5"w x 3.50"h.
Endeavour to Improve Keepsake Box is an original design by Lori Wilson of Thread Milk Design. It compliments the reproduction sampler "Catharine w 1820 - Endeavour to Improve" which is a phrase Catharine chose to include with her original sampler. Finishing instructions are included with... Read more
Elsie Glennie Watt is a reproduction of a colorful late 19th century genealogy sampler stitched on Zweigart 40 ct Mushroom/Light Mocha. I love the rainbow of colors that Elsie used in stitching her sampler that is perfect for a springtime stitch! And the border - whether roses or strawberries, what... Read more
Helen's Drum is a pin drum pattern using key elements of our Helen Monro sampler.
The model was stitched on 40 ct linen using DMC floss, a conversion to Au Ver a Soie (Soie D'Alger) is also provided in the chart. Stitch count is 226 x 60. Finished size is 11.3" x 3".
Hannah Cummins stitched her sampler in Stockton, England in 1828 when she was 9 years old. A photo of the antique sampler is included in the package. "My thoughts before they are my own are to my God distinctly known. He knows the words I mean to speak ere from opning lips they break.