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 is a beautifully balanced, intensely stitched transitional sampler. Worked originally in brightly colored silk threads on a fine tammy (wool) ground, it features a repeating, four-sided carnation border, surrounding five horizontal bands interspersed by lines of... 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
In the upper register of this finely stitched English sampler there is featured an unusual vignette of Adam and Eve beneath the tree of life (with a menacing black faced serpent) flanked by mirror image brick cottages, followed by a pious verse:
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 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
Note from the designer: "A Pennsylvania German sampler that may not be, strictly speaking, a miniature, but is nonetheless small for its type. Typical Pennsylvania German folk culture motifs - birds, trees, hearts, flowers, crowns and stars - adorn it."
Band samplers of the 17th century exhibit the widest range of stitches and techniques. Counted thread stitches on linen were artfully combined with panels of floral, geometric, or figural cut and drawn work- a technique where the background threads of linen are carefully bound, then cut and pulled... 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
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: "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
Displaying the traditional color scheme of Scottish samplers, this beautiful and delicately stitched piece also employs a variety of interesting counted thread stitches including queen, doublerunning, four-sided, back, counted satin filling, cross, Algerian eyelet, and cross over one (petit... 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
Note from the designer: "This small and brilliantly preserved band sampler demonstrates a wide variety of stitches found on many seventeenth century samplers. The beautifully shaded flower heads and leaves are filled in with connecting tiers of trellis stitch."
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
Agnes Binnie was born in Stirlingshire, Scotland, on March 22, 1808, to Robert Binnie and Mary Addie. She married James Barclay on March 16, 1832, in Falkirk, Stirlingshire. The couple had at least six sons and three daughters. Around 1870 they emigrated to Scotland Township in McDonough, Illinois.... Read more
This is a reproduction of an English sampler made in Bradford, Yorkshire, that shows distinct influences of Scottish needlework traditions, particularly in the illuminated alphabets. The bold primary colors were reproduced from the front of the original sampler, which retains its amazing... Read more
This design was excerpted from the top of an early nineteenth-century English sampler. It features an unusual and amusing hunting scene with a solo hunter on horseback pursuing a single hapless stag with a pack of ten spotted hounds on its trail.
The verse reads:
Give me O Lord thy early... Read more
This mid-eighteenth-century Scottish band sampler features many classic seventeenth-century patterns, executed in cross, eyelet, double running, counted satin, back, and queen stitches.
The virtually unfaded color was reproduced from the front of the sampler. Six pattern bands precede... Read more
Try as we might, we cannot find another sampler to compare with this one by Sarah Brignell. It is a sampler unto itself: truly an original piece of folk art. The tiny central cartouche with the densely stitched scene floats like a little world unto itself in the midst of the exuberant garden of... Read more
Pattern by Shakespeare's Peddler featuring an antique sampler design with the words "Virtues the chiefelt beauty of the mind. The Noblest ornament of human kind. Virtues our safeguard and our guiding star. That stirs up reason when our senses".
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
Not only do I love the colors Agness used to stitch her sampler but I love how she ran out of room to stitch the date 1844 so she moved the last 4 up to another line.
Pattern is stitched on 28 ct Vintage Sand Dune from Lakeside Linen using Gentle Arts threads. Stitch count is 176 x 238. Finished size is 12.6" x 17".
"Lord give me wisdom to direct my ways I ask not riches nor yet for Length of Drop. From rocks and sands And stormy weather Pray God Protect John Negus for ever". "My dear friends I will Bless and praise for giving me learning in My Early days Catherine Negus her Sampler finished... Read more
I love the simplicity of this little sampler. Eliza was 10 years old when she completed her sampler and beautifully hem stitched the edges.
Pattern is stitched on 40 ct Vintage Buttercream from Lakeside Linens using Gentle Arts threads with DMC conversion. Stitch count is 127 x 120. Finished size is 6" x 5.75".
"On the alone my Hope relies Beneath thy cross I fall thou art my life my sacrifice My Savior and My All don 1837". What a stunning English sampler! It was so much fun to stitch with all the motifs and bright colors. Not sure if the swans, bull, or parrot is my favorite... okay, maybe the... Read more
"The best and most beautiful things in the world can not be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart" This sampler is done on a beautiful gray linen and stitched I Cross Stitch with threads in pinks, blues, and greens.
Pattern is stitched on 36 ct Pewter from Picture... Read more
This is an outstanding sampler with the verse "Jesus permit thy gracious name to stand As the first effort of an infants hand And while her fingers oer the canvas move Engage her tender heart to seek thy love With the dear children may she have a part And write thy name thyself upon her... Read more
"Lord what is life tis like a flower That blofsoms and is gone We see it flourish for an hour With all its beauty on". This sampler is dated December 24, 1834. I was told this sampler was a Christmas gift to Louisa's parents. Louisa was 9 years old when she completed this brightly... Read more
This sampler can either be done in mainly cross stitch (there are a couple of stitches in the alphabet but even those could be done in cross stitch) or have fun playing and fill in with Stem Stitch. I love the look of Stem Stitch, it is kind of like painting with thread. "Lord what is... Read more
"Why this in haste sweet boy so soon To go. And leave in tears thy weeping Friends below. Some heavenly voice Dear object of their love calld hence
Thy soul to dwell in realms above Scarce hadst thou learnt the good from
All to know Nor yet had drank the Bitter cup of woe. When heaven ordaind no... Read more
"Few to good breeding make a just pretence Good breeding is the blossom of good sense. The last result of an accomplished mind. With outward grace the bodys virtue joined". I love the bands and motifs Mary Ann used in this sampler. The colors in this sampler are beautiful... the mix of blue... Read more