Mary Simson 1719

Description

The cartouche band in the lower third of this English sampler bears a remarkable resemblance to other samplers from the later eighteenth century, including two reproduced by The Scarlet Letter: one made by Sarah Limah in 1748 (from the collection of the Shelburne Museum), the other made in 1771 by Susan Dunn.
This is the earliest appearance of interconnected cartouches that we have seen, and it is an interesting example of how certain patterns were borrowed and recur on samplers made centuries apart. For its early date, Mary’s sampler is quite progressive in design, in that the band shape of the usual seventeenth century sampler is giving way to a more pictorial, square format. The verses follow, but it should be noted that the second, reproduced from the original, is a bit incomprehensible.

If all mankind would live in muttil love
The world would much resemble that above

Awets a fether acheF arod and onest man is
The noblet works of God