#8192                                                                                                            Charlotte Fowle Sampler              

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16 1/4 " x 15 1/2" or 20" x 19 1/2 including a modern frame with a gilt liner. The needlework on Charlotte's lovely sampler is quite beautiful.  The stitches she chose to use to create the many florals, give her sampler a great deal of dimension and texture. Look closely at the beautiful apple and pear trees.  You don't often see a pear tree on a sampler.  The fruit trees are simply stunning. The three sided border is filled with lovely florals and foliage. The cartouche at the bottom is surrounded with yet more gorgeous florals.  Charlotte was an artist with a needle.  She stitched an inner sawtooth satin stitch border, the aforementioned floral border and finally, she surrounds her sampler with a border of hemstitch. 

 

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Her verse reads:

Jesus permit thy gracious name to stand
As the First efforts of an Infant's hand
And while her fingers oer the canvas move
Engage her tender heart to seek thy love
With thy dear children let her share a part
And write thy name thyself upon her heart."

She signs her sampler, "Charlotte Fowle  Aged 10 1817"
                                                                        

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The condition of Charlotte's beautiful sampler is good but it does show two issues.  There is a stain that runs along the bottom and two sides of the sampler. And you can see the nail holes along the outside edge of the fabric where the sampler was once mounted on wood.  But otherwise the condition of the piece is actually quite good. The sampler has been mounted on acid-free board.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         SOLD

                                                                             #8196                                                                                                            Catherine Jones Sampler              

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12 " x 15 " or 16" x 19  including a modern burled frame with a gilt liner. Catherine's gorgeous floral sampler has a very delicate  feminine appearance. There is an unusual wavy border with florals growing on both sides of it. The flowers are large and quite realistic. The center of the sampler features two large birds (probably peacocks), a couple of wonderful bees, more tiny flying insects and of course, more florals. The sampler is lovely and quite artistic.

 

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Her verse reads:

Thou dear Redeemer dying
Lamb   We love to hear of thee
No music lik thy charming name
Doth sound so sweet to me."

She signs her sampler, "Catherine Jones her Sampler
made in the 13 year of her age in the year 1826"
                                                                        

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The condition of Catherine's sampler is very good. There is one hole in the fabric just below the word "age" The green. gold, cream and blue silks are still vibrant and still showing some of their sheen. The sampler has been mounted on acid-free board.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             $1635

                                                                             #8193                                                                                                            Eliza F. Jones Sampler               

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17 1/2 " x 16 1/2" or 21" x 21 1/2" including a modern frame Eliza's sampler has a very classic sampler look to it. There are alphabets at the top separated by a couple of decorative bands.  The center of her sampler is filled with lovely florals that are reminiscent of a Quaker sampler. The flower filled basket in the middle is especially nice. She added her verse and surrounded the piece with a neat little border. This is a classic sampler with what I think is an attractive price.

 

 

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Her verse reads:

Restless mortals toil for naught
Bliss in vain from earth is sought
Bliss a native of the sky
Never wanders  Mortals try
There you cannot seek in vain
For to seek her is to gain"

She signs her sampler, "Eliza F. Jones Born 1819"
                                                                        

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There are a couple of smallish issues to the condition of Eliza's charming sampler.  It appears that Eliza did not quite finish stitching her needlework.  The bottom right corner is unstitched.  There is also a stain in the right alphabet area and the colors in the florals look just a bit faded.   The sampler has been mounted on acid-free board.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         SOLD

     #8197 Band Sampler

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9" x 16" or 9 1/2" x 17" including

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an old frame with a gilt liner.  While the stitcher did not sign her sampler, she did give us a date of 1706.  Because she didn't sign her piece we have no way of knowing whether this very early sampler is American or English.  But either way it is a stunning piece of needlework. There are many different types of stitches used including Cross Stitch, Eyelet Stitch, Double Running Stitch, and Satin Stitch, as well as several other stitches too tiny for my old eyes to identify.     

The floral bands are lovely and they give the needlework a great deal of texture and depth.  Band samplers in this time period were used to both learn and store needlework patterns for future use on clothing. These florals would have been beautiful on a vest or bodice or a ballgown skirt. But by  far I think the band with the Double Running Stitch boxers is the most beautiful and intriguing band on the sampler.  Boxers are usually male figures who generally flank a floral motif and hold a flower or "offering" in their hand.  The figure of the boxer is thought to depict a lover offering a flower to his beloved.  These motifs are usually found on 17th century samplers.  So a sampler dated 1706 is actually quite late to find the boxer motif.. 

It was quite difficult to get a good picture of the boxer band.  The bronze color simply does not photograph well.  On the actual sampler it is lovely.

  

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                                                                                                                                                              The condition of this very early sampler is actual- ly quite good. There are no holes in the fabric and no losses to the silk.  The silks are still showing quite a bit of sheen and the colors are still bright.  The sampler has been mounted on acid-free board.                                                                                                                                   
                                                                                                                           $2250

                                                                             #8198                                                                                                            Sarah Elisa Thomas Sampler               

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13 " x 16 1/2" or 16" x 19 3/4 including a modern frame. Sometimes a sampler looks more like a piece of art than it does a sampler. Sarah's needlework looks like a piece of art.  It is a beautiful design.  There is a wonderful house with twelve multi-paned windows surrounded by trees, birds and two multi colored pea hens.  The vignette at the bottom of the sampler features two majestic stags in a lovely forrest of trees.  Her sampler is surrounded with a very unusual floral border. I think it is Sarah's wonderful use of the colors available to her that gives her sampler an artistic look.  She used just two shades of green and two shades of gold to give her forrest floor dimension and texture. Her sampler is very appealing.

 

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She signed her sampler "Sarah Elisa Thomas Her Work
in the year of our Lord  18__  " Sarah's sampler is what we refer to as a vanity sampler.  At some point after she had finished her sampler she went back and picked out the final two numbers in the date. She did that so that no one could tell her age by the date on the sampler.

J

                                                                        

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The condition of Sarah's stunning needlework is very good. There are no holes in the fabric and no losses to the silks. The colors are quite vibrant and still retain a good amount of sheen. There is no bleeding.  . The sampler has been mounted on acid-free board.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              SOLD