Chloe Jenkins 1814

Description

Chloe Jenkins worked her sampler in Scituate, Massachusetts, in 1814, likely under the tutelage of a schoolmistress whose name is unknown. The design with its heavy geometric border with tassels across the top and feathery flowers along the right and left borders, the large vowels, verse and alphabets above a two-storied house with a distinctive roof balustrade, fronted by an elaborate fenced garden, is very similar to two samplers worked by the Daman sisters in Scituate, in 1804 and 1807, and pictured in the book A Gallery of American Samplers: The Theodore H. Kapnek Collection by Glee Krueger, figures 51 and 54… It is not uncommon for the same stylistic devices to be worked on samplers taught by a single schoolmistress over a period of time in one specific geographic area. The unidentified house that appears on this sampler, as well as the Daman sisters’ samplers, could well have been the home of their unknown teacher, or the school itself. Stitches include cross, back, eyelet, stem and satin.