Samplers and Tapestry Embroideries Part 7

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 36.--SMALL SAMPLERS BY LYDIA JOHNSON. 1784. _Author's Collection._]

The Place of Origin of Samplers

Collectors, in discussing samplers among themselves, have wondered whether it would be possible to a.s.sign differences in construction and material to their having been produced in localities where the characteristic forms and patterns had not permeated. But those specimens which the author has examined, and which by a superscription gave a clue as to their place of origin, certainly afford insufficient foundation for such a.s.sumptions. In the first place, samplers so marked are certainly not sufficiently numerous to warrant any opinion being formed on the subject, and, as to those not so marked, the places where they have been found cannot be taken into account as being their birthplaces, as families to whom they have for long belonged may naturally have removed from quite different parts of the kingdom since the samplers were made.

It is surprising how seldom the workers of samplers deemed it necessary to place upon them the name of the district which they inhabited. There are few who followed the example of the girl who describes herself on a sampler dated 1766, thus:--

"Ann Stanfer is my name And England is my nation Blackwall is my dwelling place And Christ is my salvation."

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 37.--SCOTTISH SAMPLER BY MARY BAYLAND. 1779.]

The only names of places in England recorded on samplers in The Fine Art Society's Exhibition were Chipping Norton, Sudbury, Hawkchurch, and Tottenham, and certain orphan schools or hospitals, such as Cheltenham and Ashby. Curiously enough, the Scottish la.s.sies were more particular in adding their dwelling-place, thus, in the sampler reproduced in Fig. 37, and which is interesting as a survival as late as 1779 of a long sampler, Mary Bayland gives her residence as Perth, and others have been noted at Cupar, Dunbar, and elsewhere in Scotland. It might be expected that these Scottish ones would differ materially from those made far away in the southern parts of the kingdom, but whilst those in Figs. 32 and 34 have a certain resemblance and difference from others in the decoration of their lettering, that in Fig. 36 might well have been worked in England, showing that there were no local peculiarities such as we might expect.

It will be seen that two of the American samplers figured here have their localities indicated, namely Miss Damon's school at Boston (Fig. 50) and Brooklyn (Fig. 47).

Samplers as Records of National Events

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 38.--SAMPLER BY MARY MINSHULL. DATED JUNE 29, 1694.]

A largely added interest might have been given to samplers had a fas.h.i.+on arisen of lettering them with some historical occurrence which was then stirring the locality, but unfortunately their makers very rarely rose to so much originality. Three rare instances were to be seen in The Fine Art Society's Exhibition. These, curiously enough, came together from different parts of the country--one from Nottingham, a second from Hockwold, Norfolk, and the third from the author's collection in London--but they were worked by two persons only, one by Mary Minshull, and two by Martha Wright. They are all unusual in their form of decoration (as will be seen by that ill.u.s.trated in Fig. 38), and were practically similar in design, colour, and execution, each having a set of single pinks worked in high relief in the centre of the sampler. Their presence together was certainly a testimony to the all-embracing character of the Exhibition. The inscriptions upon them were as follows:--

(1) "The Prince of Orang landed in the West of England on the 5th of November 1688, and on the 11th April 1689 was crowned King of England, and in the year 1692 the French came to invade England, and a fleet of s.h.i.+ps sent by King William drove them from the English seas, and took, sunk, and burned twenty-one of their s.h.i.+ps."--Signed "_Martha Wright, March 26th, 1693_."

(2) "There was an earthquake on the 8th September 1692 in the City of London, but no hurt tho it caused most part of England to tremble."--Signed "_Mary Minshull_."

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE XII.--SAMPLER BY ANN MARIA WIGGINS. 19TH CENTURY.

_Mrs C. J. Longman._

This "Goldfinch" Sampler was one of the most elaborate Samplers in the Bond Street Exhibition, and is really a wonderful production for a child of seven years of age. It was probably made early in the nineteenth century.]

The third was a combination of the two inscriptions.

Nothing of a similar character in work of the eighteenth century has come under my notice, but the Peace of 1802 produced the following lines on a sampler:--

"Past is the storm and o'er the azure sky serenely s.h.i.+nes the sun With every breeze the waving branches nod their kind a.s.sent."

ON PEACE

"Hail England's favor'd Monarch: round thy head Shall Freedom's hand Perennial laurels spread.

Fenc'd by whose sacred leaves the royal brow Mock'd the vain lightnings aim'd by Gallic foe Alike in arts and arms ill.u.s.trious found Proudly Britannia sits with laurel crown'd Invasion haunts her rescued Plains no more And hostile inroads flies her dangerous sh.o.r.e Where'er her armies march her ensigns Play Fame points the course and glory leads the way.

O Britain with the gifts of Peace thou'rt blest May thou hereafter have Perpetual rest And may the blessing still with you remain Nor cruel war disturb our land again.

"The Definitive Treaty of Peace was signed March 27{th} 1802 proclaimed in London April the 29{th} 1802--Thanksgiving June the 1st 1802.

_Mary Ann Crouzet Dec{br} 17 1802._"

Later samplers gave expression to the universal sympathy elicited by the death of Queen Charlotte.

Map Samplers

Needlework maps may very properly be cla.s.sed under the head of samplers, for they originated in exactly the same way, namely, as specimens of schoolgirl proficiency, which when taken home were very lasting memorials of the excellence of that teaching termed "the use of the globes."

Maps were only the product of the latter half of the eighteenth century; at least, none that I have seen go back beyond that time, the earliest being dated 1777. Their interest for the most part is no more than that of a map of a contemporary date; for instance, the North America reproduced in Fig. 39 has nothing whatever in the way of needlework to recommend it, but it shows what any map would, namely, how little was known at that date of the Western States or Canada.

A map of Europe in the Exhibition, dated 1809, was a marvellous specimen of patient proficiency in lettering, every place of note being wonderfully and minutely sewn in silk. The executant was f.a.n.n.y le Gay, of Rouen.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 39.--MAP OF NORTH AMERICA BY M.A.K. 1738.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 40.--MAP OF ENGLAND AND WALES BY ANN BROWN.]

A map printed on satin or other material was sometimes worked over, not always as regards all the lettering, but as to the markings of the degrees of lat.i.tude and longitude,[7] and some of the princ.i.p.al names.

These have naturally less interest and value as specimens of needlework than those which are entirely hand worked, although for the purposes of geographical reference they were at all events reliable, which is more than can be said for some of the original efforts; as, for instance, that of little Ann Brown, whose map of England and Wales is reproduced (Fig.

40). Starting bravely, her delineation of Northumberland takes her well down the canvas, so that by the time she has reached Newcastle she has carried it abreast of Dumfries in Scotland, and Cork in Ireland! Yorks.h.i.+re is so expansive that it grows downward beyond Exeter and Lundy Island, which last-named places have, however, by some mishap, crept up to the northward of Manchester and Leeds. It is a puzzle to think where the little la.s.sie lived who could consort London with Wainfleet, the River Thames with the Isle of Wight, Lichfield with Portland, or join France to England. Although one would imagine that the dwelling-place of the sempstress would usually be made notable in the map either by large lettering or by more florid colouring, we have not found this to be the case.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 41.--MAP OF AFRICA. DATED 1784.]

The map of Africa (Fig 41), which is surrounded by a delightful border of spangles, and which seems to have been used as a fire-screen, is interesting now that so much more is known of the continent, for many of the descriptions have undergone considerable change, such as the Grain Coast, Tooth Coast, and Slave Coast, which border on the Gulf of Guinea.

The sampler is also noteworthy as having been done at Mrs Arnold's, which was presumably a school in Fetherstone Buildings, High Holborn, hardly the place where one would expect to find a ladies' seminary nowadays.

American Samplers

Tapestry pictures have such a Royalist air about them that it is hardly probable that they found favour with the Puritan damsels of the Stuart reigns, and, consequently, it may be doubted whether the fas.h.i.+on for making them crossed the Atlantic to the New World with the Pilgrim Fathers, or those who followed in their train. Samplers, on the other hand, with their moralities and their seriousness, would seem to be quite akin to the old-fas.h.i.+oned homes of the New Englanders, and doubtless there must be many specimens hanging in the houses of New England and elsewhere which were produced from designs brought from the Old Country, but over which a breath of native art has pa.s.sed which imparts to them a distinctive interest and value. Three notable ones, we know, crossed the Atlantic with the early settlers. One, that of Anne Gower (spelled Gover on the sampler), first wife of Governor Endicott (Fig. 42), is now a cherished possession of the Ess.e.x Inst.i.tute, Salem, Ma.s.sachusetts. As Governor Endicott's wife arrived at Salem in 1628, and died the following year, we have in her sampler the earliest authentic one on record. The inscription of very well-designed and elaborately-worked letters, difficult to distinguish in the photograph, is:--

ANNE [Diamond] GOVER

S T V W X Y Z J K L M N O P Q R A a B C d E F G H

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 42.--DRAWN-WORK SAMPLER BY ANNE GOVER, FIRST WIFE OF GOVR. J. ENDICOTT.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 43.--SAMPLER OF LOARA STANDISH, DAUGHTER OF THE PILGRIM FATHER, MILES STANDISH, NOW IN PILGRIM HALL, PLYMOUTH, U.S.A.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 44.--SAMPLER BEARING NAMES OF MILES AND ABIGAIL FLEETWOOD. DATED 1654. _Property of Mrs Frank Boxer._]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 45.--SAMPLER BY ABIGAIL RIDGWAY. 1795. _Mr A. D.

Drake's Collection._]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE XIII.--AMERICAN SAMPLER BY MARTHA C. BARTON. DATED 1825. _Mr Joseph Pennell._

Mr Joseph Pennell's Sampler, which finds a place here as a specimen of American work, has little to distinguish it from its fellows that were produced in England in the reign of George IV. The border, it is true, only preserves its uniformity on two of the four sides, but where it does it is designed on an old English pattern, that of the wild strawberry. So, too, we find the ubiquitous stag and coach dogs, Noahs, ash trees, birds, and flower baskets.]

The sampler itself is a beautiful specimen of drawn work, and the lettering is the same colour as the linen. If, as must probably be the case, it was worked by her as a child, it was made in England, and its date may be the end of the first decade of the seventeenth century. The second, by Lora Standish, is now in the Pilgrim Hall, Plymouth (Fig. 43).