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.

NEW ANTIQUES! Click Here! Or scroll down past the samplers below and see four amazing new antiques.

This colorful and ambitious piece is a sampler in every sense of the word, displaying experimental designs in a variety of unusual stitch variations.
More about Continental Sampler Dated 1744

Jane Dale has stitched a testament to her love of cats (as well as a parrot, a cockatoo, a dog and a deer). Inspired by the naturalistic embroidery style of Berlin work, the motifs are gently and subtly shaded.
More about Jane Dale

18th century English sampler features the Lord's Prayer in the upper half surrounded by flying cherubs, carnation "trees", dogs, rabbits and birds, in a bold palette of strong primary colors.
More about Mary Ann Chamberlin

This is a pleasantly quirky, colorful sampler likely stitched in the north of England circa 1824 judging by some of the Scottish influences in the design. More about Elizabeth Cheetham

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 (his and hers?), followed by a pious verse. More about Ann Jones

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