Mary Witherspoon 1774

Description

A dramatic, stylized floral border, with almost trompe l’oeil cross stitched ribbons swirling around the diagonals, is the first thing one notices about this eighteenth century English sampler. Naive lettering and a small childish scene with animals and birds exist in contrast with more sophisticated horizontal floral pattern bands. Stitches used in the reproduction are cross, bullion, counted satin, and eyelet. The brilliant shades of red, blue, and gold remained unfaded on the front of the original sampler, although the linen had darkened. The sampler is now in a private collection.