the portrayal of the human figure, samplers of the same period, and that
the best, for the most part avoid it. This is somewhat remarkable, for the
design of the Renaissance, which was universally practised at the time
upon which we are dwelling, was almost entirely given up to weaving it
into other forms, and the volumes which treat of embroidery show how
frequently it occurs in foreign pieces of needlework. The omission is a
curious one, but the reason for it is, apparently, not far to seek. If we
examine the earlier pieces we shall see that practically one type of
figure only presents itself. Save in exceptional pieces, such as Mrs
Longman's early piece (Plate IV.), where the figures are clearly copied
from one of the small tapestry pieces so in vogue at that date (1656), or
Mrs Millett's piece (Fig. 16), the figures which appear upon samplers are
all cast in one mould, and in no way improve but rather mar the
composition.
This last-named drawn-work sampler is a specimen altogether apart for
beauty of design and workmanship. Doubts have been expressed as to its
English origin, but portions of the ornament, such as the acorn, and the
Stuart S in the lowest row, are thoroughly English; besides, as we have
seen, design in almost every one of the seventeenth-century samplers is
infected with foreign motives. The uppermost panel is supposed to
represent Abraham, Sarah, and the Angel. To the left is the tent, with the
folds worked in relief, in a stitch so fine as to defy ordinary eyesight.
Sarah, who holds up a hand in astonishment at the angel's announcement,
has her head-dress, collar, and skirt in relief, the latter being sewn
with microscopic fleurs-de-lis. The winged angel to the left of Abraham
has a skirt composed of tiny scallops, which may represent feathers. A
rabbit browses in front of the tent. The centre of the second row is
occupied by a veiled mermaid, her tail covered with scalloped scale in
relief. She holds in either hand a cup and a mask. The lettering in the
two flanking panels is "S.I.D. 1649 A.I." The decorative motive of the
outer panels is peapods in relief, some open and disclosing peas. Roses
and tulips fill the larger square below, and these are followed by a row
(reversed) of tulips and acorns. Four other rows complete the sampler,
which only measures 18-1/2 × 6-3/4. In order to give it a larger size the
lowest row is not reproduced. I have seen another drawn-work sampler which
antedates that just described by a year. It is of somewhat coarse texture
but is good in design, and bears in a panel at the side initials and the
date. The Victoria and Albert Museum has also two somewhat similar
drawn-work samplers--one by Elizabeth Wood, dated 1666, which contains
the Stuart S's; the other (undated) has the arms of James I.
[Illustration: FIG. 16.--DRAWN-WORK SAMPLER BY S. I. D. DATED 1649. _Mrs
C. F. Millett._]
[Illustration: FIG. 17.--SAMPLER BY JEAN PORTER. 1709-10.]
A type of figure prevalent in early samplers has puzzled collectors who
possess specimens containing it. It wears a close-fitting costume and has
arms extended, and has received the name of a "Boxer," presumably from its
attitude and costume. It and a companion are continuously depicted for
nearly a century, finally disappearing about 1742, but maintaining their
attitude with less variation than any other form of ornament, the only
alteration being in the form of the trophy which they hold in one hand. It
is this trophy, if we may use such a term, that negatives the idea of
their being combatant figures, and it almost with certainty places them in
the category of the Greek Erotes, the Roman Amores, or the Cupids of the
Renaissance. It is difficult to give a name to the trophy in most of the
samplers, and the worker was clearly often in doubt as to its structure.
In some it resembles a small vase with a lid, in others a spray with
branches or leaves on either side. In one of 1673 it takes the form of a
four-petalled flower, and in one of 1679 that of an acorn, which is
repeated in samplers of 1684, 1693, and 1694, this repetition being
probably due to the acorn being a very favourite subject for design under
the Stuarts. In a sampler of 1693 acorns are held in either hand. In one
of 1742 (Fig. 18), the object held is a kind of candelabra. The little
figures themselves preserve a singular uniformity of costume, which again
points to their being the nude Erotes, clothed, to suit the times, in a
tight-fitting jerkin and drawers. These are always of gayest colours. On
occasions (as in a sampler dated 1693) they don a coat, and have long
wigs, bringing them into line with the prevailing fashion.
When these figures disappear their place is taken by those of our first
parents in the Garden of Eden, the incongruity of which is well depicted
in the sampler illustrated in Fig. 17. This piece of work, which took
nearly a year to complete--it was begun on 14th May 1709, and finished on
6th April 1710--is unlike any other that I have seen of that period, for
it antedates, by nearly half a century, the scenes from real life which
afterwards became part and parcel of every sampler. Adam and Eve became
quite common objects on samplers after 1760.[5]
Mention need only be made here of the dressed figures which occur in
samplers dated during the reign of George the Third. They are sometimes
quaint (as in Plates IX. and XI.), but they hardly come into any scheme
of decoration. The squareness of the stitch used in later samplers renders
any imitation of painting such as was attempted altogether a failure.
[Illustration: FIG. 18.--SAMPLER. NAME ILLEGIBLE. DATE 1742. _Formerly in
the Author's Collection._]
Sampler Design: Animals
Animals in any true decorative sense hardly came into sampler ornament.
Whilst the tapestry pictures teem with them, so that one wanting in a lion
or stag is a rarity, in samplers, probably, the difficulty of obtaining
rounded forms with the stitch used in the large grained canvas was a
deterrent. The lion only being found on the Fletwood sampler of 1654 (Fig.
44) and the stag, which in tapestry pictures usurps the place of the
unicorn, appears but rarely on samplers before the middle of the
eighteenth century, when it came into fashion, and afterwards occurs with
uninterrupted regularity so long as samplers were made.
This neglect of animals is hardly to be deplored, for when they do occur
they are little else than caricatures (see, for instance, those in Plate
III.). Birds, which lend themselves to needlework, appear in the later
samplers (Plate XI. and Fig. 18), but hardly as part of any decorative
scheme.
Sampler Design: Flowers
With the practically insignificant exceptions which we have just noticed,
the ornamentation of the sampler was confined to floral and geometrical
motives, and whilst the latter were for the most part used in drawn-work
samplers, the former constituted the stock whence the greater part of the
decoration employed in the older examples was derived.
Amongst the floral and vegetable kingdom the selection was a wide one, but
a few favourites came in for recognition in almost every sampler, partly
because of their decorative qualities, and partly from their being
national badges. With few exceptions they were those which were to be met
with in English seventeenth-century gardens, and undoubtedly, in some
instances, may have been adapted by the makers from living specimens.
Chief among the flowers was the rose, white and red, single and double,
the emblem for centuries previously of two great parties in the State, a
badge of the Tudor kings, a part of the insignia of the realm, and
occupying a foremost place upon its coinage. In sampler ornamentation it
is seldom used either in profile or in bud, but generally full face, and
more often as a single than as a double flower. As a form of decoration it
may have been derived from foreign sources, but it clearly owed its
popularity to the national significance that attached to it.
The decorative value of the pink or carnation has been recognised from the
earliest times, and a piece of Persian ornament is hardly complete without
it. It is not surprising, therefore, that the old sampler workers utilised
it to the full, and in fact it appears oftener than the rose in
seventeenth-century specimens. Ten of the thirteen exhibits of that
century at The Fine Art Society's Exhibition in 1900 contained it as
against seven where the rose was figured. It maintains this position
throughout, and the most successful of the borders of bordered samplers
are those where it is utilised. Specimens will be found in Plates III.,
IV., and VI.
The decorative value of the honeysuckle was hardly appreciated, and it
only appeared on samplers of the date of 1648 (Plate III.), 1662 (Plate
V.), 1668, 1701, and 1711, in the Exhibition, and the undated one
reproduced in Fig. 4.
[Illustration: PLATE X.--SAMPLER BY CATHERINE TWEEDALL. DATED 1775. _Mrs
Arthur Severn._
The Sampler is noteworthy not only on account of its harmonious colour
scheme, its symmetry of parts, and the excellence of its needlework, but
as having been wrought by a young lady who afterwards became Mrs Ruskin,
and the grandmother of John Ruskin. Her name, Cathrine Tweedall, is worked
in the lower circle, and is illegible in the otherwise admirable
reproduction, owing to its being in a faded shade of the fairest pink. The
verse was probably often read by her renowned grandson, and may perchance
have spurred his determination to strive in the race in which he won so
"high a reward." Mrs Arthur Severn, to whom the Sampler belongs, notes
that the Jean Ross whose name also appears upon it was the sister of the
great Arctic explorer. The date of the Sampler is 1775.]
Sampler workers were very faithful to the strawberry, which, after
appearing in almost every one of the seventeenth-century long samplers,
was a favourite object for the later borders, and it may be seen
almost unaltered in specimens separated in date by a century at least. We
give in Fig. 31 a very usual version of it. (See also Plate XIII.)
[Illustration: FIG. 19.--SAMPLER BY MARY ANDERSON. 1831. _Lady
Sherborne._]
Other fruits and flowers which now and again find a place are the fig,
which will be seen in Plate III.; the pineapple, the thistle (Fig. 21),
and the tulip in samplers dated 1662, 1694, 1760, and 1825 (Plate XIII.).
Although the oak tree acquired political significance after the flight of
Charles II., that fact can in no way account for such prominence being
attached to its fruit and its foliage as, for instance, is the case in
samplers dated 1644 and 1648 (Plate III.), where varieties of these are
utilised in a most decorative fashion in several of the rows of ornament,
or in another of the following years (Fig. 16). But, curiously enough,
after appearing in almost every seventeenth-century sampler, it
disappeared entirely at the commencement of the eighteenth century.
Sampler Design: Crowns, Coronets, Etc.
The crown seems to have been suddenly seized upon by sampler makers as a
form of decoration, and for half a century it was used with a tiresome
reiteration. It had, of course, been largely used in Tudor decoration, and
on the restoration of the monarchy it would be given prominence. But it
probably was also in vogue because it lent itself to filling up spaces
caused by alphabets not completing a line, and also because it allowed of
variation through the coronets used by different ranks of nobility. We
have seen in the sampler, Fig. 20, that the coronet of each order was used
with a letter beneath, indicating duke, earl, etc. On occasions crowns
were also used with some effect as a border. It is possible that the
fashion for coronets was derived from foreign samplers, where this form
of decoration was frequently used about the end of the seventeenth
century, doubtless owing to the abundance of ennobled personages; they may
well have come over with many other fancies which followed in the train of
the House of Hanover. The earliest sampler in the Exhibition before
referred to which bore a crown was one of 1693; but the coronet was there
placed in conjunction with the initials M. D., and might be that of a
titled lady who worked it. After that it appeared in one dated 1705 (where
it was clearly a royal one connected with "Her Majesti Queen Anne"), and
in samplers dated 1718, 1726, 1728 (1740, in which there were at least
fifty varieties), and so on almost yearly up to 1767, after which it
gradually disappeared, two only out of seventy subsequent samplers
containing it. These were dated 1798 and 1804. In countries where almost
every family bore a rank which warranted the use of a coronet, there would
be a reason for their appearance as part of what would have to be
embroidered on table linen, etc.
[Illustration: FIG. 20.--SAMPLER. SCOTTISH (?). 18TH CENTURY. _Formerly in
the Author's Collection._
NOTE.--The bright colouring, coarse canvas, and ornate lettering of this
piece suggest a Scottish origin. It dates from about 1730, and is one of
the earliest of the bordered samplers, the border being at present an
altogether insignificant addition. It is also one of the first specimens
of decoration with crowns and coronets, the initials underneath standing
for king, duke, marquis, earl, viscount, lord, count, and baron.]
[Illustration: FIG. 21.--SAMPLER BY J. H. [JANE HEATH]. A.D. 1725. _Mr
Ashby Sterry._]
The tiny sampler with crown illustrated in Fig. 21 was one of four
contributed to the Exhibition by Mr Ashby Sterry, each of them
representing a generation in his family. It is unfinished, the background
only having been completed in the lower half; its crown and thistle denote
its Scottish origin.
[Illustration: FIG. 22.--SAMPLER BY MARY BYWATER. 1751. _Formerly in the
Author's Collection._]
[Illustration: FIG. 23.--HEART-SHAPED SAMPLER BY MARY IVES. DATED 1796.
_Miss Haldane._
NOTE.--This delightful little sampler is reproduced in its full size, and
is most delicately adorned with a pink frilled ribbon edging. We do not
know which of the three ladies whose names it bears worked it, or to which
of them the lines, "Be unto me kind and true as I be unto you," were
addressed. The date, it will be seen, is 1796, and it shows that at the
end of the century there was still an affection for the little flying
Cupids so usual upon eighteenth-century gravestones. We have remarked upon
the absence of the cross in samplers: even here we do not find it,
although we have the heart and anchor.]
Sampler Design: Hearts
This emblem, which one would have imagined to be a much more favourite
device with impressionable little ladies than the crown, is more seldom
met with. In fact, it only figured on four of the hundreds of samplers
which composed the Exhibition, and in three of these cases it was in
conjunction with a crown. When it is remembered how common the heart used
to be as an ornament to be worn, and how it is associated with the crown
in foreign religious Art, its infrequency is remarkable. The unusually
designed small sampler (the reproduction being almost the size of the
original), Fig. 22, dated 1751, simply worked in pale blue silk, on a fine
khaki-coloured ground, has a device of crowns within a large heart. Fig.
23 shows a sampler in the form of a heart, and has, in conjunction with
this symbol, anchors. It is dated 1796.
The Borders to Samplers
The sampler with a border was the direct and natural outcome of the
sampler in "rows." A case, for instance, probably occurred, as in Fig.
24,[6] where a piece of decoration had a vacant space at its sides, and
resort was at once had to a portion of a row, in this case actually the
top one. From this it would follow as a matter of course that the
advantage, from a decorative point of view, of an ornamental framework was
seen and promptly followed. The earliest border I have seen is that
reproduced in Fig. 25, from a sampler dated 1726, but it is certain that
many must exist between that date and 1700, the date upon the sampler in
Fig. 24 just referred to. The 1726 border consists of a pattern of
trefoils, worked in alternating red and yellow silks, connected by a
running stem of a stiff angular character; the device being somewhat akin
to the earlier semi-border in Fig. 24.
[Illustration: FIG. 24.--DRAWN-WORK SAMPLER BY S. W. A.D. 1700. _Mrs C. J.
Longman._]
It is astonishing with what persistency the samplerists followed the
designs which they had had handed to them in the "row" samplers, confining
their attentions to a few favourites, and repeating them again and again
for a hundred and fifty years, and losing, naturally, with each repetition
somewhat of the feeling of the original. We give a few examples which
show this persistency of certain ideas.
[Illustration: FIG. 25.--BORDER OF MARY LOUNDS'S SAMPLER. A.D. 1726.]
[Illustration: FIG. 26.--BORDER OF MARY HEAVISIDE'S SAMPLER. A.D. 1735.]
[Illustration: FIG. 27.--BORDER OF ELIZABETH GREENSMITH'S SAMPLER. AGED
10. JULY YE 26, 1737.]
The border in Fig. 26 is dated 1735, and presents but little advance from
a decorative point of view. It is the production of Mary Heaviside, and is
upon an Easter sampler, which bears, besides the verse to the Holy Feast
of Easter, the Lord's Prayer and the Belief. The border may possibly
typify the Cross and the Tree of Life.
Elizabeth Greensmith's sampler (Fig. 27), worked two years later, in 1737,
is more pretentious in form, the body of the work being taken up with a
spreading tree, beneath which repose a lion and a leopard. The border
consists of an ill-composed and ill-drawn design of yellow tulips,
blue-bells, and red roses. The stem, which runs through this and almost
every subsequent design, is here very feebly arranged; it is, however,
only fair to say that the work is that of a girl in her tenth year.
[Illustration: FIG. 28.--BORDER OF MARGARET KNOWLES'S SAMPLER. AGED 9.
A.D. 1738.]
Margaret Knowles's sampler (Fig. 28), made in the next year--A.D. 1738--is
the earliest example I know of the use on a border of that universal
favourite the pink, which is oftentimes hardly distinguishable from the
corn blue-bottle. In the present instance it is, however, flattened almost
out of recognition, whilst the design is spoilt by the colossal
proportions of the connecting stem. In the second row of the sampler, Fig.
24, it is seen in a much simpler form, and it will also be found in Plate
VI.
[Illustration: FIG. 29.--BORDER TO SAMPLER BY ELIZABETH TURNER. A.D.
1771.]
[Illustration: PLATE XI.--SAMPLER BY ANN CHAPMAN. DATED 1779. _Mrs C. J.
Longman._
Incongruity between the ornament and the lettering of a Sampler could
hardly be carried to a more ludicrous extreme than in Ann Chapman's, which
is here reproduced in colour. The two points of Agur's prayer, which fills
the panel, are that before he dies vanity shall be removed far from him,
and that he shall have neither poverty nor riches. Yet as surroundings and
supporters to this appeal we have two figures posing as mock shepherd and
shepherdess, and decked out in all the vanities of the time. Agur's prayer
was apparently often selected, for we see it again in the Sampler of Emily
Jane Brontë (Fig. 10), but there it has the quietest of ornament to
surround it, and it is worked in black silk; whereas in the present case
there is no Sampler in the collection where the whole sheaf of colours has
been more drawn upon.]
The remaining illustrations of borders are selected as being those
where the design is well carried out, and as showing how the types
continue. The first (Fig. 29), worked by Elizabeth Turner in 1771,
represents a conventional rose in two aspects; the second, by Sarah Carr
(Fig. 30), in 1809, is founded on the honeysuckle; whilst the third (Fig.
31) is a delightfully simple one of wild strawberries that is frequently
found in samplers from the earliest (in Plate II.) onwards. In that from
which this example is taken, worked by Susanna Hayes in 1813, it is most
effective with its pink fruit and green stalks and band. It will be
noticed that it even crossed the Atlantic, for it reappears in Mr
Pennell's American sampler, Plate XIII.
[Illustration: FIG. 30.--BORDER TO SAMPLER BY SARAH CARR. A.D. 1809.]
[Illustration: FIG. 31.--BORDER TO SAMPLER BY SUSANNA HAYES. A.D. 1813.]
How even the border degenerated as the nineteenth century advanced may be
seen in the monotonous Greek fret used in the three samplers of the
Brontës (Figs. 10, 11, 12), and in that of Mary Anderson (Fig. 19).
Miscellanea respecting Samplers
Under this heading we group what remains to be said concerning samplers,
namely:--
The Age and Sex of Sampler Workers
In modern times samplers have been almost universally the product of
children's hands; but the earliest ones exhibit so much more proficiency
that it would seem to have been hardly possible that they could have been
worked by those who were not yet in their teens. This supposition is in a
way supported by an examination of samplers. Of those prior to the year
1700, I have seen but one in which the age of the maker is mentioned. It
reads thus, "Mary Hall is my name and when I was thirteen years of age I
ended this in 1662." On the other hand, the rhyme which we quoted at page
50, attached to one in Mrs Longman's possession, which, although undated,
is certainly of the seventeenth century, points to it being the work of a
grown-up and possibly a married lady.
It is not until we reach the year 1704 that I have found a sampler (Fig.
32) which was the product of a child under ten, namely, that bearing the
inscription "Martha Haynes ended her sampler in the 9th year of her age,
1704."
This is quickly followed by one by "Anne Michel, the daughter of John and
Sarah Michel ended Nov. the 21 being 11 years of age and in the 3 year of
Her Majesti Queen Anne and in the year of ovr Lord 1705."
1740 is the next date upon one worked by Mary Gardner, aged 9 (page 27).
[Illustration: FIG. 32.--SMALL SAMPLER BY MARTHA HAYNES. DATED 1704. _Late
in the Author's Collection._]
From 1750 onwards the majority of samplers are endorsed with the age of
the child, and the main interest in the endorsements lies in the
remarkable proficiency which many of them exhibit, considering the youth
of the worker, and in the tender age at which they were wrought. Almost
one half of the tiny workers have not reached the space when their years
are marked with two figures, and we even have one mite of six producing
the piece of needlework reproduced in Fig. 33, and talking of herself as
in her prime in the verse set out upon it.
[Illustration: FIG. 33.--SAMPLER BY SARAH PELHAM, AGED 6.]
But perhaps the most remarkable achievement is the "goldfinch" sampler
illustrated in Plate XII., which was worked by Ann Maria Wiggins at the
age of seven.
It is not unreasonable to suppose that samplers were on occasions worked
by children of both sexes. One's own recollection carries back to canvas
and Berlin wool-work having been one way of passing the tedious hours of a
wet day. But specimens where the Christian name of a male appears are few
and far between, and more often than not they are worked in conjunction
with others, which would seem to indicate that they are only there as part
and parcel of a list (which is not unusual) of the family. In the sampler
illustrated in Fig. 34 the boy's name, Robert Henderson, is in black silk,
differing from any of the rest of the lettering, which is perhaps
testimony to his having produced it. This sampler shows the perpetuation
until 1762 of the form in which rows are the predominant feature. A
sampler, formerly in the author's collection, was more clearly that of a
boy, being signed Lindsay Duncan, Cuper [_sic_], 1788. Another Scottish
one bears the name or names Alex. Peter Isobel Dunbar, whilst a third of
the same kind is signed "Mathew was born on April 16, 1764, and sewed this
in August, 1774."
The Size of Samplers
The ravages of time and the little value attached to them have probably
reduced to very small numbers the tiny samplers such as those which are
seen in Figs. 35 and 36, and which must have usually been very infantine
efforts. Those illustrated, however, show the progress made by two
sisters, Mary and Lydia Johnson, in two years. Presumably Lydia was the
elder, and worked the sampler which bears her name and the date 1784. This
was copied by her sister Mary in the following year, but in a manner which
showed her to be but a tyro with the needle; nor much advanced in
stitchery in the following year, in which she attempted the larger
sampler which bears her name. Lydia, on the other hand, in the undated
sampler, but which was probably made in the year 1786, showed progress in
everything except the power of adapting the well-known design of a pink to
the small sampler on which she was engaged, as to which she clearly could
not manage the joining of the pattern at the corners. The originals of
these samplers measure from four to six inches in their largest
dimensions.
[Illustration: FIG. 34.--SCOTTISH SAMPLER BY ROBERT HENDERSON. DATED
1762.]
[Illustration: FIG. 35.--SMALL SAMPLERS BY MARY JOHNSON. 1785-6. _Author's
Collection._]
[Illustration: 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 assign 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 assumptions. 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."
[Illustration: 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 lassies 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
[Illustration: FIG. 38.--SAMPLER BY MARY MINSHULL. DATED JUNE 29, 1694.]
A largely added interest might have been given to samplers had a fashion
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 illustrated 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
ships sent by King William drove them from the English seas, and took,
sunk, and burned twenty-one of their ships."--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_."
[Illustration: 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 shines the sun
With every breeze the waving branches nod their kind assent."
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 illustrious found
Proudly Britannia sits with laurel crown'd
Invasion haunts her rescued Plains no more
And hostile inroads flies her dangerous shore
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 classed 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 Fanny le Gay, of Rouen.
[Illustration: FIG. 39.--MAP OF NORTH AMERICA BY M.A.K. 1738.]
[Illustration: 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 latitude and longitude,[7] and some of the principal 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! Yorkshire
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 lassie 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.
[Illustration: 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 fashion 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-fashioned 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 passed 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 Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts. 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
[Illustration: FIG. 42.--DRAWN-WORK SAMPLER BY ANNE GOVER, FIRST WIFE OF
GOVR. J. ENDICOTT.]
[Illustration: FIG. 43.--SAMPLER OF LOARA STANDISH, DAUGHTER OF THE
PILGRIM FATHER, MILES STANDISH, NOW IN PILGRIM HALL, PLYMOUTH, U.S.A.]
[Illustration: FIG. 44.--SAMPLER BEARING NAMES OF MILES AND ABIGAIL
FLEETWOOD. DATED 1654. _Property of Mrs Frank Boxer._]
[Illustration: FIG. 45.--SAMPLER BY ABIGAIL RIDGWAY. 1795. _Mr A. D.
Drake's Collection._]
[Illustration: 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).
Lora was the daughter of Miles Standish, the Pilgrim Father, who went to
Boston in February 1621, and it bears the inscription:--
"Loara Standish is My Name
Lord Guide My Heart that I may do Thy Will
And fill my hands with such convenient Skill
As will conduce to Virtue void of Shame
And I will give the Glory to Thy Name."
[Illustration: FIG. 46.--SAMPLER BY ELIZABETH EASTON. 1795. _Mr A. W.
Drake's Collection._]
The earliest dated sampler in America of which I have cognisance, and one
which may have been worked in that country, is that bearing the names of
Miles and Abigail Fletwood (Fleetwood?) (Fig. 44). It is dated 1654, and
has been owned by the descendants of Mrs Henry Quincy since 1750, and is
now in the possession of Mrs Frank Boxer of Cambridge, Massachusetts, who
has kindly furnished me with particulars concerning it. It bears the
following inscription:--
"In prosperity friends will be plenty,
But in adversity not one in twenty,"
which, it is thought, may possibly have reference to the reverses of Miles
Fletwood and his relationship to Cromwell. It is somewhat remarkable for a
sampler to bear the names of husband and wife for it necessarily
presupposes its having been worked after marriage.
[Illustration: FIG. 47.--SAMPLER BY MARIA E. SPALDING. 1815. _Dr J. W.
Walker's Collection._]
[Illustration: FIG. 48.--SAMPLER BY MARTHA C. HOOTON. 1827. _Mr A. W.
Drake's Collection._]
If one may judge from the photographs which collectors in America have
sent me, and for which I have to thank Dr James W. Walker of Chicago and
Mr A. W. Drake of New York, and those noted in an article on the subject
in the _Century Magazine_,[8] specimens between the period just named,
that is the middle of the seventeenth century and the end of the
eighteenth century, are rare. We have but two such figured, each dated
1795, and, as will be seen by the illustrations (Figs. 45 and 46), they
are entirely British in character. I am glad, however, to add several
interesting specimens of later date from the collections of these
gentlemen. Unfortunately, not having the originals, I can only give them
in monochrome. Plate XIII., however, represents in colour an American
sampler. It belongs to Mr Pennell, the well-known artist and author, and
was worked by an ancestress, Martha C. Barton, in 1825. From Mrs Longman's
collection I also give (Fig. 51) one, worked in silk on a curious loose
canvas, which was obtained by her in Massachusetts, and has the following
inscription:--
"Persevere. Be not weary in well doing.
Youth in society are like flowers
Blown in their native bed, 'tis there alone
Their faculties expand in full bloom
Shine out, there only reach their proper use.
"Wrought by Lydia J. Cotton. Aged 9 years. August 27. 1819. Love
learning and improve."
Foreign Samplers
It has been my endeavour in this volume to confine the survey of samplers
and embroideries entirely to the production of the English-speaking race,
in part because other authors have drawn almost all their material from
foreign sources, and the subject is sufficiently ample and interesting
without having recourse to them, and also because the collections
containing foreign samplers or embroideries are very few, and although
they, perhaps, surpass the efforts of our own countrywomen in the variety
of their stitches and the proficiency with which they are executed, they
take a less important place where interest of subject is the main
recommendation.
[Illustration: FIG.--49. AMERICAN SAMPLER OF THE LAMBORN FAMILY. 1827. _Mr
A. W. Drake's Collection._]
[Illustration: FIG. 50.--AMERICAN SAMPLER BY ELIZABETH M. FORD. _Dr Jas.
W. Walker's Collection._]
[Illustration: FIG. 51.--AMERICAN SAMPLER BY LYDIA J. COTTON. DATED 1819.
_Mrs C. J. Longman._]
Nevertheless as the acquisition of them may add an interest to those who
never fail on their travels to inspect the contents of every curiosity
shop they come across, the following description of them which Mrs C. J.
Longman, who possesses a most important collection, has been good enough
to furnish, may not be out of place.
"My collection of foreign samplers includes specimens from the following
countries: Germany, Holland, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, France,
Switzerland, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, but by far the largest number of
my foreign samplers come from Germany, and, next to English ones, the
German seem more easy to obtain than those of any other country. In Spain
and Portugal there are also a fair number in the market.
"The dated samplers abroad seem to begin at about the same period as in
England, namely, the middle of the seventeenth century. The earliest
specimens that I possess from these several countries are as follows:
Germany, 1674; Switzerland, 1675; Italy, seventeenth century (undated);
Spain, early eighteenth century (undated); Belgium, 1724; Holland, 1726;
Denmark, 1742; France, 1745; Portugal, early nineteenth century (undated).
"There are a few marked characteristics which seem to belong to the
different countries, which it is interesting to note.
"In the German samplers, the initials of the worker and the date are
almost always given, enclosed together, in a little garland or frame; but
I have never seen the name signed in full. I have only once seen a German
sampler with an inscription on it; in that case 'Fur uns geoffert' is
worked above a representation of the Crucifixion.
"The seventeenth-century German samplers are rather small, and much
squarer in shape than English ones of the same date. With the eighteenth
century long, narrow ones came in, a quite common size being 44 in. long,
by about 10 in. broad, the usual width of the linen; the selvage is left
at the top and bottom.
"There is seldom much arrangement in the earlier German samplers. They
usually have one alphabet, and various conventional flowers, birds, and
other designs scattered over them.
"With the long shape of sampler a more methodical arrangement came in. A
typical one is as follows: Lines of alphabets and numerals across the top,
some large subjects in the centre, and designs for borders arranged in
lines across the bottom.
"The central subjects very often include a representation of the
Crucifixion and emblems of the Passion, namely, the crown of thorns,
scourge, ladder, nails, hammer, tweezers, sponge, hour-glass, dice, cock.
Adam and Eve under the Tree of Knowledge is another favourite subject, and
animals such as lions, deer, or parrots frequently occur. One does not
often find houses or domestic scenes. One sampler, dated 1771, has a
christening depicted on it, which I imagine to be very unusual.
"The borders are very various. In them trefoils, grapes, conventional
pinks, roses, pears, and lilies and occasionally deer and birds are worked
in; but I have never seen the 'Boxers' or other figures that one finds in
the English borders, and I have only one specimen with acorns.
"The earliest German samplers seem to be worked entirely in cross-stitch,
beautifully fine, and the same on both sides of the material; the
back-stitching so often found on early English ones I have never seen. In
the eighteenth century other stitches were sometimes used, and I have one
German sampler, dated 1719, which is almost entirely worked in knots. On
others some elaborate stitches are shown, which are mostly worked in
square patches, and are not made use of for improving the design of the
samplers.
"The earliest examples of darned samplers that I have seen come from
Germany, and I think that one may give the Germans the credit of inventing
them; for, whereas, in England they do not appear much before the end of
the eighteenth century, I have a German one dated 1725, and several others
from the middle of the same century. The darns on these samplers show
every kind of ordinary and damask darning, the material being usually cut
away from underneath and the hole entirely filled in. I have never seen
German darning worked into designs of flowers, birds and so on, as we see
on English darned samplers.
"As in all countries, the colours of the earlier German samplers are the
best, but they are in no case striking.
"Dutch samplers seem quite distinct in character from German ones. All
those that I have seen are broader than they are long, and they are worked
across the material, the selvage coming at the sides, instead of at the
top and bottom. They are usually dated, and signed with initials. One of
their main characteristics is to have elaborate alphabets worked in two or
more colours. The second colour is very often worked round an ordinary
letter as a sort of frame or outer edge, and gives it a clumsy, rather
grotesque appearance. The Dutch samplers might, as a rule, be described as
patchy. Without any obvious arrangement they have houses, ships, people,
animals, etc., scattered over them. The stitch used is mainly
cross-stitch; but back-stitch, an open kind of satin-stitch, and
bird's-eye-stitch are also often seen.
"Belgian samplers, as far as I have seen, approach more nearly to the
German in style. I have one, however, dated 1798, which is quite distinct
in character. It is 64 in. in length, with a large, bold alphabet of
letters over 2 in. long worked on it, such as might be used for marking
blankets.
"I have only three specimens of Danish samplers, but they are all
remarkable for the great variety of stitches introduced. I have a Danish
sampler, and also a Swedish one of about 1800 worked on fine white muslin,
both giving patterns of stitches for the 'Töndu' muslin drawn work. These
patterns imitate both needlepoint and pillow laces, threads are drawn out
one way of the material, the remaining ones being drawn together with a
great variety of stitches, so as to follow the intricacies of lace
patterns. This work was much used for adorning elbow ruffles, fichues,
etc., and it is very like some Indian muslin work, though the stitches are
slightly different.
"French samplers, as far as I have seen, are also remarkable for the
fineness of the stitches. They are usually dated and signed in full, and
often have inscriptions worked on them. One large French map of Europe in
my collection has 414 names worked on it in fine cross-stitch, many of
them being worked on a single thread of material, which is a fine muslin.
"Swiss samplers show fine work, but a great lack of effect. One dated 1675
has several borders on it, worked in the back-stitch so much used in
England at that date.
"From Italy I have no important coloured samplers, but several point-coupé
ones. They are undated but belong to the seventeenth century. These
samplers show a beauty of design which is rather in contrast to that of
English ones of the same kind and date, there being a grace and meaning
about the Italian patterns that one seldom finds in English specimens of
drawn work, fine as these are. A typical coloured Italian sampler of about
1800 is as follows: The sampler is nearly square, and is divided into
three parts. In the upper division a Latin cross is worked at the side,
and the rest of the space is filled with two alphabets, numerals, and the
name of the worker, but no date. In the second division a cross is worked,
and fourteen emblems of the Passion. In the third division are various
trees, figures, animals, etc., some local colour being given by an orange
and a lemon tree in pots.
"Spain is well represented in my collection. For beauty of colouring and
designs I think that it stands far ahead of any other country. Spanish
samplers are generally large; they are sometimes square, sometimes long in
shape. They are as a rule entirely covered with border patterns, which in
the square shape are worked along the four sides parallel to the edge; and
which in the long shape runs in lines across the sampler, with a break in
the middle, where the border changes to another pattern, thus giving the
impression that the sampler is joined up the centre. The patterns of the
borders vary a great deal; I have counted thirty different ones on one
sampler. They are mostly geometric, and not based on any natural objects,
but the designs are so skilfully handled and elaborately worked out as to
take away any appearance of stiffness; and in them the prim acorn, bird,
or trefoil of the English and German border patterns are never seen. I
have one Spanish sampler, dated 1738, of a quite different type to all my
others. It is divided into three panels. The top panel is filled with
floral designs, the centre with a gorgeous coat of arms, and the lower
panel contains a representation of St George and the Dragon.
"The colours used in Spanish samplers are very striking, and their
blending in the different borders is very happy and effective. Most of the
early specimens are worked almost entirely in satin-stitch, although
cross-stitch and back-stitch are also sometimes introduced. The samplers
are usually hem-stitched round the edge, and occasionally contain some
drawn work. I have one early specimen in which the drawn part is worked
over in coloured silks.
"The Spanish samplers that I have seen seldom have the alphabet worked on
them, and are rarely dated. On the other hand, they often have the name of
the worker signed in full.
"Portugal is only represented in my collection by samplers worked in the
nineteenth century; it is therefore hardly fair to compare these specimens
with the earlier ones of other countries, for everywhere samplers began
to deteriorate in that century. The Portuguese samplers that I possess are
eminently commonplace and can well be described as 'Early Victorian.'
"It must be remembered that my remarks on foreign samplers are based on
specimens belonging to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. With few
exceptions I have not tried to collect modern ones, which approximate much
more to each other in the different countries.
"Looking back over this brief survey, and comparing foreign samplers with
English, one or two differences at once stand out. The foreign samplers
are seldom worked in a pictorial form. They hardly ever, except in France,
have verses or texts worked on them. The age of the worker is never given.
This is much to be regretted, as in these three things lies much of the
personal interest of the English sampler.
"On the other hand, from a practical point of view, if one goes to one's
samplers as to pattern-books for good stitches, designs and effects of
colour, England no longer takes the first place, and one would turn for
these to the samplers of Germany, Scandinavia, Spain, and Italy."
Indian Samplers
Many of the Anglo-Indian mothers who reared and brought up families in the
East Indies in the days when the young ones had to pass all their youth in
that country, regardless of climatic stress, must have trained their girls
in the cult of sampler-making, and the same schooling went on in the
seminaries at Calcutta and elsewhere, as we have seen in the specimen
illustrated in Fig. 2. I am able to give another illustration (Fig. 52),
which is not otherwise remarkable except for the fact that it was worked
by a child at Kirkee, and shows how insensibly the European ornament
becomes orientalised as it passes under Eastern influence. It is the only
sampler in which there is any use made of plain spaces, and even here it
is probably only accidental.
[Illustration: FIG. 52.--SAMPLER BY HELEN PRICE. MADE AT KIRKEE, EAST
INDIES. DATED 18--. _Late in the Author's Collection._]
Sampler Literature
Although, undoubtedly, much of the ornament upon samplers consists of
designs that have been handed down from generation to generation by means
of the articles themselves, pattern-books have not been altogether lacking
even from early days. They have not, however, rivalled either in quantity
or quality those which treat of the sister Art of lace-making, for, so far
as is known, early English treatises on the subject are limited to some
half a dozen, and these occupy themselves as much with lacework as with
embroidery.
The first English book that is known is in reality a foreign one; it is
entitled, "New and Singular Patternes and Workes of Linnen Serving for
Patternes to make all sorts of Lace Edginges and Cut Workes. Newly
invented for the profite and contentment of Ladies, Gentilwomen and others
that are desireous of this Art. By Vincentio. Printed by John Wolfe 1591."
We have not been able to find a copy, and therefore can do no more than
chronicle its existence.
A volume upon which needleworkers of the seventeenth century must have
relied much more largely for their ideas was published in its early years
under the title of "The Needle's Excellency. A New Booke wherein are
divers admirable workes wrought with the needle. Newly invented and cut in
copper for the pleasure and profit of the industrious. Printed for James
Boler, and are to be sold at the Syne of the Marigold in Paules
Churchyard." This treatise went to twelve editions at least, but,
nevertheless, is very rare. The twelfth, "enlarged with divers newe
workes, needleworkes, purles, and others never before printed. 1640," is
to be found in the British Museum Library, but even that copy has suffered
considerably from usage, for many plates are missing, and few are in
consecutive order. The title-page consists of an elaborate copper plate,
in which are to be seen Wisdom, Industrie, and Follie; Industrie, seated
in the middle under a tree with a formal garden behind her, is showing
Follie, who is decked out in gorgeous Elizabethan costume, her work, and
Follie is lifting her hands in astonishment at it. Following the
title-page comes a lengthy poem by Taylor, the Water Poet, upon the
subject of needlework. So far as one can judge from the samplers of the
period, the designs for needlework in the book, which consist of formal
borders, have been very seldom copied, but some for drawn work undoubtedly
have a close resemblance to those which we see in existing pieces. Another
book, which I have been unable to find in the Museum, is described as
"Patternes of Cut Workes newly invented and never published before: Also
Sundry Sorts of Spots, as Flowers, Birdes, and Fishes, etc., which will
fitly serve to be wrought, some with gould, some with silke, and some with
creuell in coullers; or otherwise, at your pleasure."
From "The Needle's Excellency" we have many clues as to needlework in the
early seventeenth century. First of all, as to the articles for which
samplers would be required, the following are mentioned: "handkerchiefs,
table cloathes for parloures or for halls, sheetes, towels, napkins,
pillow beares." Then as to the objects which were delineated on
embroideries, it states that:--
"In clothes of Arras I have often seene
Men's figured counterfeits so like have beene
That if the parties selfe had been in place
Yet Art would vie with nature for the grace."
Again,
"Flowers, Plants and Fishes,
Beasts, Birds, Flyes and Bees,
Hills, Dales, Plains, Pastures,
Skies, Seas, Rivers, Trees,
There's nothing ne'er at hand or farthest sought
But with the needle may be shap'd and wrought."
It would seem from the foregoing that the volumes would be of more profit
to the worker of embroidered pictures than to sampler-makers, and this was
no doubt the case; for when the former went out of fashion, the books
dealing with the subject disappeared too, and nothing further of any note
was published, except in the beginning of the last century, when the
National Schools were furnished with manuals which dealt more with plain
sewing than with decorative needlework.
The Last of the Samplers
I can hardly close my remarks upon the entertaining subject, the
elucidation of and material for which has filled many spare hours, without
a word of regret at having to pen the elegy of the sampler.
It may be said that even so long ago as the era of the _Spectator_ there
were those who sounded its death knell, and who considered that the days
when a lady crowded a thousand graces on to the surface of a garter were
gone for ever. For did it not go to the heart of one of Mr Spectator's
correspondents to see a couple of idle flirts sipping their tea for a
whole afternoon, in a room hung round with the industry of their
great-grandmothers, and did he not implore that potentate to take the
laudable mystery of embroidery into his serious consideration?
But even then there were matrons who upheld the craft, and of whom an
epitaph could be written that "she wrought the whole Bible in tapestry,
and died in a good old age after having covered three hundred yards of
wall in the Mansion House." Besides, the samplers themselves show that the
industry, if not the Art, continued all through that century and for at
least half of the nineteenth.
The decadence of the sampler has never been more tenderly or pathetically
dealt with than in the description given of the dame's school in the
sketch entitled "Lucy," in Miss Mitford's "Our Village."[9]
... There are seven girls now in the school working samplers to be
framed. "Such a waste of silk, and time, and trouble!" I said to Mrs
Smith, and Mrs Smith said to me. Then she recounted the whole battle
of the samplers, and her defeat; and then she sent for one which, in
spite of her declaration that her girls never finished anything, was
quite completed (probably with a good deal of her assistance), and of
which, notwithstanding her rational objection to its uselessness, Lucy
was not a little proud. She held it up with great delight, pointed out
all the beauties, selected her own favourite parts, especially a
certain square rosebud, and the landscape at the bottom; and finally
pinned it against the wall, to show the effect that it would have when
framed. Really, that sampler was a superb thing in its way. First came
a plain pink border; then a green border, zig-zag; then a crimson,
wavy; then a brown, of a different and more complicated zig-zag; then
the alphabet, great and small, in every colour of the rainbow,
followed by a row of figures, flanked on one side by a flower, name
unknown, tulip, poppy, lily--something orange or scarlet, or
orange-scarlet; on the other by the famous rosebud, then divers
sentences, religious and moral;--Lucy was quite provoked with me for
not being able to read them; I daresay she thought in her heart that I
was as stupid as any of her scholars; but never was MS. so illegible,
not even my own, as the print-work of that sampler;--then last and
finest, the landscape, in all its glory. It occupied the whole narrow
line at the bottom, and was composed with great regularity. In the
centre was a house of a bright scarlet, with yellow windows, a green
door, and a blue roof: on one side, a man with a dog; on the other, a
woman with a cat--this is Lucy's information; I should never have
guessed that there was any difference, except in colour, between the
man and the woman, the dog and the cat; they were in form, height, and
size, alike to a thread, the man grey, the woman pink, his attendant
white, and hers black. Next to these figures, on either side, rose two
fir-trees from two red flower-pots, nice little round bushes of a
bright green or intermixed with brown stitches, which Lucy explained,
not to me--"Don't you see the fir-cones, sir? Don't you remember how
fond she used to be of picking them up in her little basket at the
dear old place? Poor thing, I thought of her all the time that I was
working them! Don't you like the fir-cones?"--After this, I looked at
the landscape almost as lovingly as Lucy herself.
[Illustration: FIG. 53.--BEADWORK SAMPLER BY JANE MILLS. 19TH CENTURY.
_Late in the Author's Collection._
NOTE.--The only modern sampler in The Fine Art Society's Exhibition in
which beadwork was employed. This is the more remarkable as it apparently
dates from about the period when beadwork was so much in fashion for
purses, etc. As we shall see in our illustrations of pictures in imitation
of tapestry (Plate XXI.), beadwork was very common in the seventeenth
century, but we have not seen a single specimen of this material dated in
the eighteenth century, unless it be this one, which we place at the end
of the eighteenth or the beginning of the nineteenth century.]
It has been prophesied that:--
"Untill the world be quite dissolv'd and past
So long at least the needles use shall last."
I trow not, if for "use" the word "Art" may be substituted.
It is true that recent International Exhibitions have included some
marvellous specimens of adroitness in needlework, such, for instance, as
the wonders from Japan; but these _tours de force_, and even the skilled
productions from English schools, as, for instance, "The Royal School of
Art Needlework," and which endeavour fitfully to stir up the dying embers
of what was once so congenial an employment to womankind, are no
indications of any possibility of needlework regaining its hold on either
the classes or the masses.
Samplers can never again be a necessity whereby to teach the young idea,
and every year that passes will relegate them more and more into the
category of interesting examples of a bygone and forgotten industry.
[Illustration: FIG. 54.--SAMPLER BY ELIZABETH CLARKSON. 1881. _Author's
Collection._]
One sampler dated within the last half century finds a place in this book,
but it is indeed a degraded object, and is included here to show to what
the fashion had come in the Victorian era, an era notable for huge sums
being expended on Art schools, and over a million children receiving Art
instruction at the nation's expense. The sampler is dated 1881, and was
the work of a lady of seventeen years of age. The groundwork is a common
handkerchief, the young needlewoman evidently considering that its
puce-coloured printed border was a better design than any she could
invent. It was produced at a school, for there are broidered upon it the
names of thirty-five other girls, besides seven bearing her own
patronymic. As will be seen by the reproduction (Fig. 54), it is adorned
with no less than nine alphabets, not one of which contains an artistic
form of lettering. As to the ornament, the cross and anchor hustle the
pawnbroker's golden balls, and formless leaves surround the single word
"Love," all that the maker's invention could supply of sentimentality.
This is apparently the best that the deft fingers of Art-taught girlhood
could then produce. The flash in the pan that, round about the date of its
creation, was leading to the production of the "chairback" in crewels,
collapsed before machine-made imitations, and well it might when even a
knowledge of how to stitch an initial is unnecessary, as we can obtain by
return of post from Coventry, at the price of a shilling or so a hundred,
a roll of our names in red, machine-worked, lettering. Truly it seems as
if any use for needlework in the future will be relegated to an occasional
spasmodic effort, such as when war confronts us and our soldiers are
supposed to be in need of a hundred thousand nightcaps or mufflers.
The decay of needlework amongst the children of the middle classes may
perhaps be counterbalanced by other useful employments, but undoubtedly
with those of a lower stratum of society the lack of it has simply
resulted in their filling the blank with the perusal of a cheap
literature, productive of nothing that is beneficial either to mind or
body.
[Illustration: PLATE XIV.--EMBROIDERED PICTURE: CHRIST IN THE TEMPLE,
STONING OF MARTYRS, ETC. ABOUT 1625. _Formerly in the Author's
Collection._
One of the quaintest of the Embroidery pictures. Differing as it does from
the majority of its fellows in the costume of its figures, and valuable as
it is as a record of the dress of the first years of the seventeenth
century, the piquancy and variety of the subjects depicted combine with
these to give it an unusual interest. As regards the dress, it denotes a
period towards the close of the reign of James I. The ruff is still worn
by the doctors, but the boots of the gentleman who walks with a lady are
very close to the fashion of Charles I. The subjects combine religious and
mundane. The former comprise Christ in the Temple instructing the doctors,
Susannah and the Elders, and a remarkable scene of Martyrs at the stake,
one of the latter being in the uncomfortable position of having a stone
protruding from his forehead. The latter show the squire and his lady
beside their residence, young ladies out for an airing, and others about
to enter a Pergola. Its maker has not only been happy through the vitality
imparted to the human puppets, but has succeeded equally well with animal
life; witness the rabbit and squirrel beneath the apple tree and the
greyhound and hare in the lower corner. The water in which Susannah laves
her legs is worked in imitation of ripples, and looks fresher than the
rest owing to the recent removal of the talc with which it was covered.
The clouds in the upper part of the moss, etc., in the lower portion come
dark in the reproduction as they are made of purl, which has tarnished. It
will be noted that those of the pictures in which the surface is not
entirely covered with embroidery are usually worked upon white satin. This
was a fashion of the time, and supplanted velvet, the material hitherto
used, owing, it is assumed, to its being an easier material to work upon,
but also probably to its beautiful surface resembling a background of
parchment, and to the magnificent quality which was then made.]
[Illustration: FIG. 55.--EMBROIDERED GLOVE. EARLY 17TH CENTURY. _Formerly
in the Author's Collection._]