Welcome to The Scarlet Letter

WE ACCEPT PAYPAL BUT THIS OPTION DOES NOT SHOW UP ON OUR ONLINE ORDER FORM. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO USE PAYPAL SIMPLY SEND YOUR ORDER, AND YOUR MAILING ADDRESS TO ME AT samplers@scarlet-letter.com AND I WILL SEND AN INVOICE TO YOU THROUGH PAYPAL.

Flora and fauna were highly celebrated in nearly all 17th and 18th century pictorial embroideries. Executed entirely in cross or tent (half cross) stitches, the embroidered pictures embellished cushions and furniture and reflected a changing attitude toward domestic comforts, by serving to brighten monochromatic wood and stone interiors.
More about Man, Dogs and Deer

This is an usual early 18th century needlework picture (circa 1730). The formula is similar to other examples: a couple flanking a tree, but it is usually more like a biblical "Tree of Life" with deciduous leaves and fruit, and the couples look more traditionally western. The exotic woman appears to be holding either a zither or a book: the gentleman appears to be playing a pipe as he leans on a sheep crook. All of the traditional elements are there- shepherd, shepherdess, sheep, dog, yet something is odd.
More about A Couple in an Exotic Landscape

The majority of historic samplers that we see today were worked as part of a child's education, many in the home, but the majority worked in the classroom. Seventy eight beautifully photographed illustrations, with text, are in this 71 page full color catalogue. The first 35 purchased will receive a free chart of an English "Puzzle sampler", similar to one illustrated on Plate 40.
$32.00 plus $7.50 for priority postage
More about The Educated Stitch

This English sampler featuring "Sheffield General Infirmary" with stylishly dressed people on either side, above a lawn decorated with animals, will be available in June.
More about Elizabeth Gray

This simple, sweet, naive English sampler has meandering floral and Greek key borders, centering a large basket of flowers and foliage.
More about Mary Moss

This sweet English sampler is the first I've ever seen with a border made up of flying cherubs. It also features a "geode" (mosaic) parrot- a distinctively stylized bird that appears on other samplers made in England, New England, and the Netherlands throughout the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
More about Elizabeth Eyles.

This finely stitched sampler has a multifloral border centering an alphabet and numerals in an unusual pyramidal configuration, a verse, and a scene executed in petit point, featuring a cozy cottage flanked by trees and oversized blossoms.
More about Jane Howell.

Maria Tomlinson, who most likely was born, raised, married and buried in Nottinghamshire, stitched the east front of Wilton House in Wiltshire as it might have appeared in 1841. The house has a long and rich history.
More about Maria Tomlinson.

This lively Scottish sampler features a four sided honeysuckle border with double running stitch flourishes, and eight rows of colorful alphabets including one with intricately illuminated lettering.
More about Jane Walker.

The depiction of a lazy shepherdess intrigued me when I first saw it in a blurry old illustration of an eighteenth century New England canvaswork picture.
More about Thirty Days Hath November.

This sampler could possibly have been made in Connecticut but the surname is quite common throughout New England. Abigail was ten years old when she made her sampler.
More about Abigail Bacon.

These antique samplers are available for purchase. Some of these samplers will be reproduced in the future.

Janet Nicoll

Mary Holtby

Elizabeth Cheetham

Elizabeth Kershaw

Charlotte Penston

Ann Jones

GDR-IHM

Mary Ann Chamberlin

We have updated our customer gallery with pictures of Eleanor Parr stitched by Willena and Jennie Bean and Log Cabin stitched by Mary.

If you want to see more items that have been recently added, check out our list of new items. It shows all items that have been added to the TSL website during the past year. You can display the list at any time by clicking on the cherub logo in the right column of any webpage.