ISOBELLA WILKIE 1799

This is a wonderful, classic Scottish “mansion house” sampler, beginning with a wide arcaded band of stylized pansies across the followed by a verse:

In thy fair book of life divine

My god inscribe my name

There let it fill some humble place

beneath the slaughtered lamb

A mansion house is fronted by a walled garden and its roof is flanked by two crowned female figures.  Above the house is a depiction of the Spies of Canaan carrying their grapes.  Isobella was eight years old (!) when she finished this exquisite sampler.  It is executed with silk on linen, and the stitches used are cross, petit point, freehand stem, and satin and counted satin.

The color and condition are very good, with just six very tiny holes scattered about the ground.  The stitched piece measures 16″ x 13″, with the frame 18-1/2″ x 15-1/2″.  It is framed in a period Hogarth-style frame that might not be quite as old as the needlework within.