Antique Samplers

ELIZA WATSON AGED 18, 1857 ADAM AND EVE IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN A large mid 19th century English sampler stitched with brightly colored Berlin wool on a canvas ground, featuring Adam and Eve under the Tree of Life with dark blue cherubs flying overhead.  This quirky sampler,  stitched by an older girl, is in…

Featuring the initials TT and ID Executed in cross, eyelet, and double running stitches, this sampler features a popular motif of a standing fountain with two birds, possibly doves, with wings outstretched, perched on the bowl.  There is a wreath of leaves enclosing the fountain. This may have been intended to represent the Fountain of…

This English sampler has been stitched on very fine linen with a four sided floral border centering a scene with a girl walking a country road with a cottage in the right background and possibly a twenty mile marker on the left.  She is carrying a basket and a walking stick.  Two elaborate flower baskets…

ELIZABETH GILBERT dated 1814 This finely stitched English sampler might be associated with Norfolk as well as Quaker sampler schools.  Much of the lettering resembles the lettering found on Quaker samplers, and the arrangement of the letters in the fifth row suggest “the rule to mark napkins” taught at Quaker schools. The verse, titled “Contentment”…

Stitches used in the sampler include cross, petit point, eyelet and four-sided.  It measures 16-1/2″ x 13-1/2″, and is unframed.

English memorial sampler featuring a brick house and verses. The lawn in front of the house is flanked by strange looking hedgehog-like creatures. The verses are: May God from whomall mercies springBless the true churchand save the King**Religion does not censureor excludeUnnumber’d pleasuresharmlessly pursued** My dear and honoured Father John Carefield Died on Monday the…

An English sampler with a four sided multifloral border centering a pyramidal alphabet and numerals, horizontal pattern bands, a verse and scene executed in petit point, featuring a house flanked by trees and oversized flowers. Stitched in silk on fine linen, the color is very good, but the condition is fair with considerable damage to…

EUNICE MORTON’S SAMPLER AGED 11 1794 Eunice Morton might have been born in 1783 in Gorham County, Maine.  She might have died in 1863 in Somerset County, Maine.  Around 1810 she might have married Jesse Harding in Maine.  This is all that I know.  There were other women by that name in New England in…

Very fine English sampler featuring a two-story stone house fronted by a lawn and a circular drive, flanked by motifs of angels riding puffy clouds, birds, trees, flowers, dogs, lions, and peacocks. A sweet, tiny petit point alphabet flanks the four-line verse: The loss of gold is muchThe loss of health is moreThe loss of…

Ellinor Marfleet was born in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, around 1800, baptized on 13 November 1800 at St. James, daughter of John Marfleet and Mary Lamtal.  Both her father and her brother were Mariners and owned their own ships.  Apparently, her brother was involved in a smuggling trial at some point. (Grimsby is a port town.)  Ellinor…

Mary Lee at the age of fourteen stitched this fine band sampler with a good assortment of flowers, birds, swans, squirrels and other traditional motifs.

Scottish sampler with a four-sided strawberry border, surrounding typical Scottish motifs including peacocks and trees composed of twelve blocks. The color is very good but slightly altered from the back which shows the rust color to be more reddish. The verse reads: Honour at best is but a blastUnconstant wealth hath wingsBut education far excelsAll…