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diff --git a/41717-0.txt b/41717-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7c8dfdb --- /dev/null +++ b/41717-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4632 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41717 *** + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations + (24 plates in color and 77 other illustrations). + See 41717-h.htm or 41717-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/41717/41717-h/41717-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/41717/41717-h.zip) + + + Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive. See + http://archive.org/details/samplerstapestry00huisrich + + +Transcriber's Notes: + + Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). + + Superscripted characters are enclosed by curly brackets + (example: March 27{th}). + + The original text includes a diamond symbol that is + represented as [Diamond] in this text version. + + + + + +SAMPLERS AND TAPESTRY EMBROIDERIES + + + _Tho our Countrie everywhere is fil'd + With ladies and with gentlewomen skil'd + In this rare art, yet here they may discerne + Some things to teach them if they list to learne + And as this booke some cunning workes doth teach + Too high for meane capacities to reache + So for weake learners other workes here be + As plaine and easie as an A B C._ + --THE NEEDLE'S EXCELLENCY. + + +[Illustration: PLATE I.--TAPESTRY EMBROIDERY. HENRY VIII., EDWARD VI., +MARY, AND ELIZABETH. _The Corporation of Maidstone._ + +(FRONTISPIECE.) + +The very unusual piece of Embroidery reproduced as our Frontispiece may +date from the Accession of Queen Elizabeth, in which case it is the +earliest specimen of an embroidery picture that we have seen. It would +appear to be the creation of some exultant Protestant rejoicing at the +restoration of his religion, which to him is "Good tidings of great joy"; +for his Queen holds the Bible open at this verse, and is ready to defend +it with her sword. Edward VI. also upholds the Bible in his upraised hand, +whilst Henry VIII. has one foot on the downtrodden Pope, and the other on +his crown, which he has kicked from his head. Popery is portrayed in Mary +with her Rosary and Papal-crowned Dragon. The presence of the Thistle +raises a doubt as to its being of the Elizabethan age, but although this +flower consorts with the Rose it also does so with a pansy, which deprives +it of its value as an emblem of Scotland. The piece belongs to the +Corporation of Maidstone.] + + +SAMPLERS & TAPESTRY EMBROIDERIES + +by + +MARCUS B. HUISH, LL.B. + +Author of "Japan and its Art," "Greek Terra Cotta Statuettes" +"The American Pilgrim's Way," &c. + +SECOND EDITION + +With 24 Coloured Plates and 77 Illustrations in the Text + + + + + + + +Longmans, Green, and Co. +39 Paternoster Row, London +New York, Bombay, and Calcutta +1913 +All rights reserved + + + + +Preface to the Second Edition + + +_I have explained, in the chapter upon English Needlework with which this +volume opens, the reasons which prompted me to take up the subject of +Samplers and Tapestry Embroideries, and I have here only to thank the many +who, since its first issue, have expressed their acknowledgment of the +pleasure they have derived from it, and to record my gratification that it +has induced some of them to start the study and collection of these +interesting objects._ + +_In the present edition several American Samplers of considerable +interest, kindly furnished by correspondents in that country, are noted +and illustrated._ + +_I am indebted to the publishers for putting the present volume on the +market at a more popular price than the expense of the first edition +permitted._ + + + + +Contents + + + PAGES + + + ENGLISH NEEDLEWORK.--ITS PRACTICE IN PAST TIMES.--ITS PLACE + AMONGST THE MINOR ARTS.--MR RUSKIN'S VIEWS AS TO NEEDLEWORK + IN A MUSEUM.--LACK OF A HISTORY.--EXHIBITION OF SAMPLERS.-- + RANGE OF THIS VOLUME 1-5 + + PART I.--SAMPLERS.--THE NEED OF.--THE AGE OF.--INSCRIPTIONS + ON.--ALPHABETS AND NUMERALS ON.--SIGNATURES ON.--INSCRIPTIONS + ON.--DESIGN, ORNAMENT, AND COLOURING OF, INCLUDING: THE HUMAN + FIGURE; ANIMALS; FLOWERS.--FURTHER INSCRIPTIONS ON.--VERSES + WHICH COMMEMORATE RELIGIOUS FESTIVALS; WHICH TAKE THE FORM OF + PRAYERS AND DEDICATIONS; WHICH REFER TO LIFE AND DEATH; WHICH + INCULCATE DUTIES TO PARENTS AND PRECEPTORS; WHICH HAVE + REFERENCE TO VIRTUE OR VICE, WEALTH OR POVERTY.--QUAINT + INSCRIPTIONS; CROWNS; CORONETS; HEARTS; BORDERS.--MISCELLANEA + RESPECTING SAMPLERS, NAMELY:--THE AGE AND SEX OF THE WORKERS; + THE PLACE OF ORIGIN OF SAMPLERS; SAMPLERS AS RECORDS OF + NATIONAL EVENTS; MAP SAMPLERS; AMERICAN SAMPLERS; FOREIGN + SAMPLERS; SAMPLER LITERATURE; THE LAST OF THE SAMPLERS 7-122 + + PART II.--EMBROIDERIES IN THE MANNER OF TAPESTRY PICTURES.-- + LARGE NUMBERS EXHIBITED AT FINE ART SOCIETY'S.--OPPORTUNITY + FOR THEIR EXAMINATION, AND FOR MAKING RECORD OF THEIR + HISTORY.--DIFFICULTIES SURROUNDING INVESTIGATION OF ORIGIN OF + INDUSTRY.--NO APPARENT INFANCY.--NO SPECIMENS DISCOVERABLE + EARLIER THAN ELIZABETHAN ERA.--THEORY AS TO FASHION + ORIGINATING WITH INTRODUCTION OF TAPESTRY MANUFACTURE TO + ENGLAND.--PARTICULARS OF THAT MANUFACTURE.--THREE-FOLD + INTEREST OF PICTURE EMBROIDERIES: (1) SUBJECTS DEPICTED + THEREON; (2) HISTORICAL MATERIAL AS TO FASHIONS; (3) AS + SPECIMENS OF NEEDLEWORK.--PARTICULARS RESPECTING SUBJECTS, + FASHIONS OF DRESS, HORTICULTURE, ETC. 123-141 + + PART III.--(1) STITCHERY OF EMBROIDERIES IN IMITATION OF + TAPESTRY AND THE LIKE.--BACKGROUND STITCHES.--FIGURES IN + RAISED NEEDLEWORK.--KNOT STITCHES.--PLUSH STITCH.--EMBROIDERY + IN PURL AND METALLIC THREADS.--BEAD EMBROIDERY.--FIRST STAGE + OF EMBROIDERED PICTURE 143-160 + + (2) THE STITCHERY OF SAMPLERS, WITH A NOTE ON THEIR + MATERIALS.--CUT AND DRAWN WORK.--BACK STITCH.--ALPHABET + STITCHES.--DARNING STITCHES.--TENT AND CROSS STITCHES.-- + VARIOUS STITCHES.--MATERIALS 161-171 + + INDEX 173 + + + + +List of Colour Plates + + + PLATE _To face page_ + + I. TAPESTRY EMBROIDERY. HENRY VIII., EDWARD VI., MARY, + AND ELIZABETH _Frontispiece_ + + II. SAMPLER, BY M. C. 16TH-17TH CENTURY 9 + + III. PORTION OF LONG SAMPLER, BY A. S. DATED 1648 16 + + IV. SAMPLER, BY ELIZABETH CALTHORPE. DATED 1656 20 + + V. PORTION OF SAMPLER, BY MARY HALL. DATED 1662 24 + + VI. PORTION OF SAMPLER, BY ELIZABETH CREASEY. DATED 1686 36 + + VII. SAMPLER, BY HANNAH DAWE. 17TH CENTURY 42 + + VIII. SAMPLER, BY MARY POSTLE. DATED 1747 48 + + IX. SAMPLER, BY E. PHILIPS. DATED 1761 56 + + X. SAMPLER, BY CATHERINE TWEEDALL. DATED 1775 66 + + XI. SAMPLER, BY ANN CHAPMAN. DATED 1779 78 + + XII. SAMPLER, BY ANN MARIA WIGGINS. 19TH CENTURY 90 + + XIII. AMERICAN SAMPLER, BY MARTHA C. BARTON. DATED 1825 100 + + XIV. TAPESTRY EMBROIDERY: CHRIST IN THE TEMPLE, STONING OF + MARTYRS, ETC. ABOUT 1625 123 + + XV. TAPESTRY EMBROIDERY. THE STORY OF HAGAR AND ISHMAEL. + ABOUT 1630 124 + + XVI. TAPESTRY EMBROIDERY. CHARLES I. AND HIS QUEEN. ABOUT 1630 126 + + XVII. LID OF A CASKET. THE JUDGMENT OF PARIS. ABOUT 1630 130 + + XVIII. TAPESTRY EMBROIDERY. THE STORY OF QUEEN ESTHER. ABOUT 1630 132 + + XIX. LID OF A CASKET. ABOUT 1660 143 + + XX. BACK OF CASKET IN TAPESTRY EMBROIDERY. SIGNED A. K., 1657 144 + + XXI. BEADWORK EMBROIDERY. CHARLES II. AND HIS QUEEN, ETC. 150 + + XXII. TAPESTRY EMBROIDERY. DATED 1735 158 + + XXIII. PURL EMBROIDERY. 16TH AND 17TH CENTURY 161 + + XXIV. DARNING SAMPLER. DATED 1788 164 + + +Illustrations in Text + + FIG. PAGE + + 1. THE VISIT TO THE BOARDING SCHOOL, BY GEORGE MORLAND xiv + + 2. BOTTOM OF SAMPLER, IN KNOTTED YELLOW SILK, BY MARY CANEY, 1710 1 + + 3. UPPER PORTION OF SAMPLER, BY PUPIL IN ORPHAN SCHOOL, + CALCUTTA, 1797 9 + + 4. SAMPLER OF CUT AND EMBROIDERED WORK. EARLY 17TH CENTURY 16 + + 5. PORTION OF SAMPLER. 17TH CENTURY 17 + + 6. PORTION OF SAMPLER OF CUT AND EMBROIDERED WORK. 17TH CENTURY 18 + + 7. SAMPLERS IN THE VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM. DATED 1643, + 1667, 1696 19 + + 8. LONG SAMPLER, SIGNED ANN TURNER. 1686 24 + + 9. SAMPLER, BY ELIZABETH BAKER. 1739 25 + + 10. SAMPLER, BY CHARLOTTE BRONTË. 1829 29 + + 11. SAMPLER, BY EMILY JANE BRONTË. 1829 31 + + 12. SAMPLER, BY ANNE BRONTË. 1830 33 + + 13. EASTER SAMPLER, BY KITTY HARISON. 1770 37 + + 14. SAMPLER, BY ELIZABETH STOCKWELL. 1832 43 + + 15. SAMPLER, BY SARAH YOUNG. _c._ 1750 53 + + 16. DRAWN-WORK SAMPLER, BY S. I. D. 1649 59 + + 17. SAMPLER, BY JEAN PORTER. 1709-10 61 + + 18. SAMPLER. NAME ILLEGIBLE. DATE, 1742 63 + + 19. SAMPLER, BY MARY ANDERSON. 1831 67 + + 20. SAMPLER (? SCOTTISH). 18TH CENTURY 69 + + 21. SMALL SCOTTISH SAMPLER, BY J. H. [JANE HEATH]. 1728 71 + + 22. SAMPLER, BY MARY BYWATER. 1751 72 + + 23. HEART-SHAPED SAMPLER, BY MARY IVES. 1796 73 + + 24. DRAWN-WORK SAMPLER, BY S. W. 1700 76 + + 25. BORDER OF MARY LOUNDS'S SAMPLER. 1726 77 + + 26. BORDER OF MARY HEAVISIDE'S SAMPLER. 1735 77 + + 27. BORDER OF ELIZABETH GREENSMITH'S SAMPLER. 1737 77 + + 28. BORDER OF MARGARET KNOWLES'S SAMPLER. 1738 78 + + 29. BORDER TO SAMPLER, BY ELIZABETH TURNER. 1771 78 + + 30. BORDER TO SAMPLER, BY SARAH CARR. 1809 79 + + 31. BORDER TO SAMPLER, BY SUSANNA HAYES. 1813 79 + + 32. SMALL SAMPLER, BY MARTHA HAYNES. 1704 81 + + 33. SAMPLER, BY SARAH PELHAM, AGED 6 83 + + 34. SCOTTISH SAMPLER, BY ROBERT HENDERSON. 1762 85 + + 35. TWO SMALL SAMPLERS, BY MAY JOHNSON. 1785-6 87 + + 36. TWO SMALL SAMPLERS, BY LYDIA JOHNSON. 1784 87 + + 37. SCOTTISH SAMPLER, BY MARY BAYLAND. 1779 89 + + 38. SAMPLER, BY MARY MINSHULL. 1694 90 + + 39. MAP OF NORTH AMERICA, BY M. A. K. 1788 93 + + 40. MAP OF ENGLAND AND WALES, BY ANN BROWN 94 + + 41. MAP OF AFRICA. 1784 95 + + 42. SAMPLER, BY ANNE GOWER 98 + + 43. SAMPLER, BY LOARA STANDISH 99 + + 44. SAMPLER, BY MILES AND ABIGAIL FLEETWOOD 99 + + 45. SAMPLER, BY ABIGAIL RIDGWAY. 1795 100 + + 46. SAMPLER, BY ELIZABETH EASTON. 1795 101 + + 47. SAMPLER, BY MARIA E. SPALDING. 1815 102 + + 48. SAMPLER, BY MARTHA C. HOOTON. 1827 103 + + 49. SAMPLER, BY THE LAMBORN FAMILY. 1822 105 + + 50. SAMPLER, BY ELIZABETH M. FORD 106 + + 51. SAMPLER, BY LYDIA J. COTTON. 1819 107 + + 52. SAMPLER, BY HELEN PRICE 114 + + 53. BEADWORK SAMPLER, BY JANE MILLS 119 + + 54. SAMPLER, BY ELIZABETH CLARKSON. 1881 121 + + 55. EMBROIDERED GLOVE. EARLY 17TH CENTURY 123 + + 56. THE JUDGMENT OF PARIS. ABOUT 1630 129 + + 57. TAPESTRY EMBROIDERY: THE FINDING OF MOSES. ABOUT 1640 134 + + 58. PORTION OF A BOOK COVER. 16TH CENTURY 136 + + 59. PURL AND APPLIED EMBROIDERY. ABOUT 1630 137 + + 60. EMBROIDERY PICTURE. CHARLES II. AND HIS QUEEN. 1663 141 + + 61. HOLLIE POINT LACE, FROM TOP OF CHRISTENING CAP. 1774 143 + + 62. CUSHION-STITCH BACKGROUND: EMBROIDERED BOOK COVER, DATED 1703 145 + + 63. EYELET-HOLE-STITCH: FROM A SAMPLER DATED 1811 146 + + 64. TAPESTRY EMBROIDERY. ABOUT 1640 147 + + 65. FACE WORKED IN SPLIT-STITCH: ENLARGED FROM EMBROIDERY + REPRODUCED IN FIG. 63 150 + + 66. FACE WORKED IN SPLIT-STITCH: ENLARGED FROM LOWER PORTION + OF FIG. 63 (NOT REPRODUCED) 151 + + 67. KNOTTED-STITCH: ENLARGED FROM EMBROIDERY REPRODUCED IN + FIG. 63 152 + + 68. EMBROIDERY PICTURE: A SQUIRE AND HIS LADY. DATED 1657 155 + + 69. HAIR OF UNRAVELLED SILK: ENLARGEMENT OF PORTION OF + EMBROIDERY REPRODUCED IN PLATE 157 + + 70. GROUNDWORK TRACING FOR EMBROIDERED PICTURE. 17TH CENTURY 159 + + 71. MOULDS FOR KNOTTED, OR LACE-WORK, WITH SILK SPOOLS AND CASE 160 + + 72. DRAWN-WORK SAMPLER. 17TH CENTURY 162 + + 73. CUT AND DRAWN-WORK: ENLARGEMENT FROM 17TH CENTURY SAMPLER 163 + + 74. SATIN-STITCH AND COMBINATION OF TYPES OF OPEN-WORK: + ENLARGED FROM THE SAMPLER REPRODUCED IN FIG. 4. 17TH CENTURY 164 + + 75. BACK-STITCH: ENLARGEMENT OF PORTION OF SAMPLER IN FIG. 5. + 17TH CENTURY. TWICE ACTUAL SIZE 165 + + 76. DARNING SAMPLER. SIGNED M. M., T. B., J. J. 1802 167 + + 77. ENLARGED PORTION OF A DARNING SAMPLER. DATED 1785 169 + + + + +[Illustration: FIG. 1.--THE VISIT TO THE BOARDING SCHOOL. BY GEORGE +MORLAND. _Wallace Collection._] + +[Illustration: FIG. 2.--BOTTOM OF SAMPLER, IN KNITTED YELLOW SILK, BY MARY +CANEY, 1710. _Mrs C. J. Longman._] + + + + +English Needlework + + +Amongst all the Minor Arts practised by our ancestresses, there was +certainly no one which was so much the fashion, or in which a higher grade +of proficiency was attained, as that of needlework. It was in vogue in the +castle and the cottage, in the ladies' seminary and the dame's school, and +a girl's education began and ended with endeavours to attain perfection in +it. Amongst the earliest objects to be shown to a mother visiting her +daughter at school was, as is seen in the charming picture by Morland in +the Wallace Collection (Fig. 1), the sampler which the young pupil had +worked.[1] These early tasks were, very certainly in the majority of +instances, little cared for by the schoolgirls who produced them, but +being cherished by fond parents they came in after years to be looked upon +with an affectionate eye by those who had made them, and to be preserved +and even handed down as heirlooms in the family. + +For some reason, not readily apparent, no authority on needlework has +considered this by-product of the Art to be worthy of notice. In the many +volumes which have been penned the writers have almost exclusively +confined their attention to the more ambitious and, perhaps, more artistic +performances of foreign nations. To such an extent has this omission +extended that in a leading treatise on "Needlework as Art," samplers are +dismissed in a single line, and in a more recent volume they are not even +mentioned. It follows that the illustrations for such books are almost +without exception culled from foreign sources, to the entire exclusion of +British specimens. + +It may be contended that the phase of needlework to which special +attention is drawn in this volume cannot be classed amongst even the Minor +Arts, and therefore is not worthy of the notoriety which such a work as +this gives to it. Such a contention can fortunately be met by the +authority of one whose word can hardly be challenged on such a question, +namely, Mr Ruskin. Some years ago, upon a controversy arising in the press +as to what objects should, and what should not, find a place in a museum, +the author, in his capacity of editor of _The Art Journal_, induced Mr +Ruskin to furnish that magazine with a series of letters containing his +views on the matter. In these, after dealing with the planning of the +building and its fitting up with the specialties which the industry of +each particular district called for, he set aside six chambers for the due +exposition of the six queenly and music-taught Arts of _Needlework_, +Writing, Pottery, Sculpture, Architecture, and Painting, and in these the +absolute best in each Art, so far as attainable by the municipal pocket, +was to be exhibited, the rise and fall (if fallen) of each Art being duly +and properly set forth. + +Mr Ruskin did not, however, content himself with claiming for needlework a +prominent position. Had he only done this, his dictum might have availed +us but little as regards admission of the branch of it to which we shall +devote most of this volume. With the thoroughness which was so +characteristic of him, he gave chapter and verse for the faith that was in +him, clenching it with one of his usual felicitous instances, which, in +this case, took as its text the indifferent stitching of the gloves which +he used when engaged in forestry. + +Proceeding to show what the needlework chamber should contain, he +designated first the structure of wool and cotton, hemp, flax, and silk, +then the phases of its dyeing and spinning, and the mystery of weaving. +"Finally the accomplished phase of needlework, all the acicular Art of +Nations--savage and civilised--from Lapland boot, letting in no snow +water, to Turkey cushion bossed with pearl; to valance of Venice gold in +needlework; to the counterpanes and _Samplers_ of our own lovely +ancestresses." + +It might appear to be by an accident that he specifically included the +"Samplers of our own lovely ancestresses," but this was not so. Fine +needlework was an accomplishment which was carried to an exceptional pitch +of excellence by his mother, and her son was proud of her achievements, +for this proficiency had descended from his grandmother, whose sampler +(reproduced on Plate IX.) was probably present to Mr Ruskin's mind when he +penned the sentence to which we have given prominence. + +Having, then, such an authority for assigning to English needlework a +foremost place in any well organised museum, it may reasonably be claimed +that our literature should contain some record of the sampler's evolution +and history, and that our museums should arrange any materials they may +possess in an order which will enable a would-be student, or any one +interested, to gain information concerning the rise and fall (for such it +has been) of the industry. + +It may be said that such information is not called for, but this can +hardly be asserted in face of the fact that the first edition of this +work, published at the considerable price of two guineas, was quickly +exhausted, and demands have for some time been made for its reissue. The +publication in question was the outcome of an exhibition held at The Fine +Art Society, London, in 1900, at which some three hundred and fifty +samplers, covering every decade since 1640, were shown. The interest taken +in the display was remarkable, the reason probably being that almost every +visitor possessed some specimen of the craft, but few had any idea that +his or her possession was the descendant of such an ancestry, or had any +claim to recognition beyond a purely personal one. Everyone then garnered +information with little trouble and with unmistakable pleasure from the +surprising and unexpected array, and the many requests that the collection +should not be dispersed without an endeavour being made to perpetuate the +information derived from an assemblage of so many selected examples led to +the compilation of the present work. + +When The Fine Art Society's Exhibition was first planned the intention was +to confine it to samplers, which, in themselves, formed a class +sufficiently large to occupy all the space which experience showed should +be allotted to them in any display with which it was not desired to weary +the visitor. But it was speedily found that their evolution and _raison +d'être_ could not be satisfactorily nor interestingly illustrated without +recourse being had to the embroidered pictures alongside of which they +originated, and which they subsequently supplanted, and to other articles +for the decoration or identification of which samplers came into being. +Consequently the collection was enlarged so as to include three sections: +first the embroidered pieces which range themselves under the heading of +"Pictures in imitation of Tapestry"; then samplers; and lastly the +miscellaneous articles, such as books, dresses, coats, waistcoats, gloves, +shoes, caskets, cases, purses, etc., which were broidered by those who had +learned the art from sampler making, or from the use of samplers as +guides. + +It would, without doubt, have added interest and variety to this volume +could all these classes have been considered in it, but to include the +last-named would have necessitated enlarging its bulk beyond practicable +limits, and, besides, it would then have covered ground, much of which has +already been very satisfactorily and completely dealt with. + +The work has consequently followed the lines of the Exhibition in so far +as it includes "Samplers" and "Embroideries in the manner of Tapestry," +which are dealt with in successive sections, and are followed by one upon +the "stitchery" employed, written by Mrs Head, who has unfortunately died +since the publication of the first edition. + + + + +The author much regrets having given currency on page 5 to the report of +Mrs. Head's death, which he is glad to learn is incorrect. + + + + +PART I + +Samplers + + +[Illustration: PLATE II.--SAMPLER BY M. C. 16TH-17TH CENTURY. _This early +pattern Sampler is described at p. 16._] + +[Illustration: FIG. 3.--UPPER PORTION OF SAMPLER BY PUPIL IN ORPHAN +SCHOOL, CALCUTTA, 1797. _Author's Collection._] + + +PART I + +Samplers + + +The sampler as a pattern, or example, from which to learn varieties of +needlework, whether of design or stitches, must have existed almost as +long as the Art of Embroidery, which we know dates back into as distant a +past as any of the Arts. But when we set about the investigation of its +evolution, we did not propose to trouble our readers with the history of +an infancy which would have been invested with little interest and less +Art; we did, however, hope to be able to extend our illustrated record +backwards to a date which would be limited only by the ravages which time +had worked upon the material of which the sampler was composed--a date +which would probably take us back to an epoch when the Art displayed upon +it was of an unformed but still of an interesting character. + +We must at the outset admit that we have been altogether disappointed in +our quest. For some two hundred and fifty years, which most will admit to +be a fair stretch of time, we can easily compile a record of genuinely +dated and well-preserved specimens, filling not only every decade, but +almost every year. The Art displayed, whether it be in design or dexterity +with the needle, improves as we proceed backwards, until, in the exact +centre of the seventeenth century, we arrive at a moment when little is +left to be desired. We then have before us a series of samplers wherein +the design is admirable, the stitches are of great variety, and the +materials of which they are composed are, in an astonishing number of +instances, as fresh and well preserved as those of to-day. But at that +moment, to our astonishment, the stream is arrested, and the supply fails, +for no, at present, discoverable reason. This sudden arrest can in no way +be explained. It would appear as if, with the downfall of the monarchy +under Charles I., with which it almost exactly corresponds, a holocaust +had been made of every sampler that existed. It is most exasperating, for +it is as if one had studied the life of a notable character backwards +through its senility, old age, and manhood, to lose all trace of its youth +and infancy. Nor is there any apparent reason for this failure of the +output. As we shall show later on, needlework for a century previously was +in the heyday of its fashion. Every article of dress and furniture was +decked out with it. As an instance, the small branch of needlework which +we discuss in our second part was mainly in vogue in the first half of the +seventeenth century, when we are searching in vain for specimens of +samplers. Samplers, too, for generations previously are recorded in the +literature of the time as common objects of household furniture. The +specimens even of our earliest recorded decade cover no less than five +years, 1651 (three), 1649, 1648 (three), 1644, 1643, and yet beyond the +last-named date we encounter an entire blank. + +This cannot be the limit of dated specimens. Earlier ones must exist, but +the publicity of a very well advertised exhibition, which brought +notifications of samplers by the thousand, did not produce them. Neither +have the public museums, nor indefatigable collectors of many years' +standing, been able to obtain them, save two of the earliest years, 1643 +and 1644, which have been acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum, and +of which that of 1643 is reproduced in Fig. 7. Our study of the sampler +must therefore be based upon the materials at our disposal, and from these +we shall analyse it with reference to its _raison d'être_, age, decorative +qualities, characteristics, and the persons by whom it was worked. + + +The Need of Samplers + +In these days of sober personal attire, in which the adornment of our +houses is almost entirely confined to the products of the loom, the +absorbing interest which needlework possessed, and the almost entire +possession which, in the Middle Ages, it took of the manual efforts of +womankind, is apt to be lost sight of. In 1583, Stubbes, in his "Anatomy +of Abuses," wrote that the men were "decked out in fineries even to their +shirts, which are wrought throughout with needlework of silke, curiously +stitched with open seams and many other knacks besides," and that it was +impossible to tell who was a gentleman "because all persons dress +indiscriminately in silks, velvets, satins, damasks, taffeties, and such +like." So, too, as regards the fair sex it was the same, from the Queen, +who had no less than 2,000 dresses in her wardrobe, downwards. In France, +almost at the same moment (in 1586), a petition was presented to +Catherine de Medicis on "The Extreme Dearness of Living," setting forth +that "mills, lands, pastures, woods, and all the revenues are wasted on +embroideries, insertions, trimmings, tassels, fringes, hangings, gimps, +needleworks, small chain stitchings, quiltings, back stitchings, etc., new +diversities of which are invented daily." Everyone worked with the needle. +We read that the lady just named gathered round her her daughters, their +cousins, and sometimes the exiled Marie Stuart, and passed a great portion +of the time after dinner in needlework. A little later Madame de Maintenon +worked at embroidery, not only in her apartments, but even when riding or +driving she was "hardly fairly ensconced in her carriage than she pulled +her needlework out of the bag she carried with her." + +The use of embroidery was not confined to personal adornment, but was +employed in the decoration of the various objects which then went to make +up the furniture of a house, such as curtains, bed-hangings, tablecloths, +chair coverings, cushions, caskets, books, purses, and even pictures. + +The luxury of the dwelling and the household had also of late increased to +an extent that called for the possession of numbers of each article, +whether it were clothing, table, or bed napery. Identification by marking +and numbering became necessary, and as, probably, the very limited library +of the house seldom contained books of ornamental lettering and numerals, +samplers were made to furnish them. The evolution of the sampler is thus +easily traceable. First of all consisting of decorative patterns thrown +here and there without care upon the surface of a piece of canvas (see +Plate II.); then of designs placed in more orderly rows, and making in +themselves a harmonious whole; then added thereto alphabets and figures +for the use of those who marked the linen, and as an off-shoot imitation +of tapestry pictures by the additions of figures, houses, etc. Finally it +was adopted as an educational task in the schools, as a specimen of +phenomenal achievement at an early age, and as a means whereby moral +precept might be prominently advertised. + +As we have said, the samplers which have come down to us, and the age of +which is certified by their bearing a date, do not extend beyond two +hundred and seventy years, but those even of that age are writ all over +with evidence that the sampler was then a fully developed growth, and must +have been the descendant of a long line of progenitors. That they were in +vogue long before this is proved by the references to them in literature +as articles the use of which was a common one. Before proceeding further +it may be well to cite some of these. + +The earliest record which we have met with is one by the poet Skelton +(1469-1529), who speaks of "the sampler to sowe on, the laces to +embroide." + +The next is an inventory of Edward VI. (1552), which notes a parchment +book containing-- + + "_Item_: Sampler or set of patterns worked on Normandy canvas, with + green and black silks." + +To Shakespeare we naturally turn, and are not disappointed, for we find +that in his "Midsummer Night's Dream," Act iii. scene 2, Helena addresses +Hermia as follows:-- + + "O, is all forgot? + All schooldays' friendship, childhood innocence? + We, Hermia, like two artificial gods, + Have with our needles created both one flower, + Both on one sampler, sitting on one cushion, + Both working of one song, both in one key, + As if our hands, our sides, voices, and minds + Had been incorporate." + +And in "Titus Andronicus," Act ii. scene 4, Marcus speaks of Philomel as +follows:-- + + "Fair Philomel, she but lost her tongue, + And in a tedious sampler sewed her mind." + +Sir Philip Sidney (1554-86), in his "Arcadia," introduces a sampler as +follows:-- + + "And then, O Love, why dost thou in thy beautiful sampler set such a + work for my desire to take out?" + +And Milton in "Comus" (1634):-- + + "And checks of sorry grain will serve to ply + The sampler, and to tear the housewife's wool." + +In "The Crown Garland of Golden Roses," 1612, is "A short and sweet sonnet +made by one of the Maides of Honor upon the death of Queene Elizabeth, +which she sowed upon a sampler, in red silk, to a new tune of 'Phillida +Flouts Me'"; beginning + + "Gone is Elizabeth whom we have lov'd so dear." + +In the sixteenth century samplers were deemed worthy of mention as +bequests; thus Margaret Tomson, of Freston in Holland, Lincolnshire, by +her will proved at Boston, 25th May 1546, gave to "Alys Pynchbeck, my +systers doughter, my sampler with semes." + +In Lady Marian Cust's work on embroidery, mention is made of a sampler of +the reign of Henry VIII., and a rough illustration is given of it; we have +endeavoured to trace this piece, but have been unable to find it either in +the possession of Viscount Middleton or of Lord Midleton, although both of +them are the owners of other remarkable specimens of needlework. + +It is evident from these extracts that samplers were common objects at +least as early as the sixteenth century. + + * * * * * + +The sampler in its latest fashion differed very materially both in form +and design from its progenitors. Consisting originally of odds and ends +of decorative designs, both for embroidery and lacework, scattered without +any order over the surface of a coarse piece of canvas, its first +completed form was one of considerable length and narrow breadth, the +length being often as much as a yard, and the breadth not more than a +quarter. The reason for this may well have been the necessity of using a +breadth of material which the looms then produced, for the canvas is +utilised to its full extent, and is seldom cut or hemmed at the sides. Be +that as it may, the shape was not an inconvenient one, for whilst its +width was sufficient to display the design, its height enabled a quantity +of patterns to follow one another from top to bottom. These consisted at +first of designs only, in embroidery and lace, to which were subsequently +added numerals and alphabets. Later followed texts, and then verses, +which, with the commencement of the eighteenth century, practically +supplanted ornaments. The sampler thereupon ceased to be a text-book for +the latter, and became only a chart on which are set out varieties of +lettering and alphabets. Still later it was transformed into a medium for +the display of the author's ability in stitching, the alphabet even +disappearing, and the ornament (if such it can be called) being merely a +border in which to frame a pretty verse, and a means whereby empty spaces +could be filled, Art at that epoch not having learnt that an empty space +could be of any value to a composition. How these changes came about, with +their approximate dates, may now be considered. + + +The Age of a Sampler + +The approximate date of any sampler, which is not more than two hundred +and fifty years old, should, from the illustrations given in this volume, +be capable of being arrived at without much difficulty, and it is, +therefore, only those undated specimens which, from their appearance, may +be older than that period that call for consideration here. They are but +few in number, and a comparison of one or two of them may be of service as +indicating the kind of examination to which old specimens should be +subjected. + +[Illustration: FIG. 4.--SAMPLER OF CUT AND EMBROIDERED WORK. EARLY 17TH +CENTURY. _The late Canon Bliss._] + +[Illustration: PLATE III.--PORTION OF LONG SAMPLER BY A. S. DATED 1648. +_Author's Collection._ + +Owing to its great length this Sampler is not shown in its entirety. A +portion of the upper part, which consists of various unconnected designs, +and figures of birds, beetles, flies, and crayfish, has been omitted. In +the portion illustrated is a man with a staff followed by a stag bearing a +leaf in its mouth, a unicorn and lion, and the initials "A.S.," with date +1648. The bands of ornaments which follow are in several instances those +which find a place nearly two centuries later as the borders of Samplers +still. The lower portion is interesting for the changes which are rung +upon the oak leaf and acorn. The silks of which it is made are in three +colours only--blue, pink, and a yellowish green--which are worked upon a +coarsish linen. Size, 34-3/4 × 8-1/2. It is in the author's collection. A +somewhat similar Sampler, dated 1666, is in the Victoria and Albert +Museum.] + +The earliest samplers present but little of the regularity of design which +marks the dated ones. They were made for use and not for ornament, a +combination which was probably always aimed at in those where regularity +and order marked the whole. They would resemble that illustrated in Plate +II., which bears evidence that it was nothing more or less than an +example, whence a variety of patterns could be worked, for in almost every +instance the design is shown in both an early and complete condition. It +is somewhat difficult to assign a date to it, but the employment of silver +and gold wirework to a greater or lesser extent in almost every +part,[2] the coarse canvas upon which it is worked, and the colours, point +to its being of the Elizabethan or early Jacobean period, the linked S's +in Fig. 5 perhaps denoting the Stuart period. One of the two specimens of +1648 (Plate III.) continues in its upper portion this dropping of the +decoration in a haphazard way on the canvas, although the greater part of +it is strictly confined to rows of regular form. At first sight Fig. 4 +should for the same reason be assigned to an earlier date than 1648, for +the greater, and not the lesser, portion of it is embroidered without any +apparent design. But more careful consideration discloses the fact that +the sampler was evidently begun at the top with thorough regularity, and +it was only at a later stage that the worker probably tired, and decided +to amuse herself with more variety and less formality. Nor can an earlier +date be assigned to Fig. 5 on account of the irregularity and +incompleteness of the lines, which have evidently been carried out no +further than to show the pattern.[3] + +[Illustration: FIG. 5.--PORTION OF SAMPLER. 17TH CENTURY.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 6.--PORTION OF SAMPLER OF CUT AND EMBROIDERED WORK. +17TH CENTURY. _The late Mrs Head._] + +The forms which the lettering takes will probably be found to be one of +the best guides to the age of the early samplers, and on this ground Fig. +6, with its peculiar G and its reversed P for a Q, may be earlier than +1650, although the stags and the pear-shaped ornament beneath them +are closely allied to those in Plate III., dated 1648. + +[Illustration: FIG. 7.--SAMPLERS IN THE VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM. DATED +1643, 1667, AND 1696.] + +[Illustration: PLATE IV.--SAMPLER BY ELIZABETH CALTHORPE. DATED 1656. _Mrs +Charles Longman._ + +This small Sampler (it measures only 17 × 7) is a remarkable testimony to +the goodness of the materials used by our ancestors, and the care that has +been taken in certain instances to preserve these early documents of +family history. For it is over two hundred and sixty years since Elizabeth +Calthorpe's very deft fingers produced what even now appears to be a very +skilled performance, and every thread of silk and of the canvas groundwork +is as fresh as the day that it emerged from the dyer's hands. The design +is one of the unusual pictorial and ornamental combinations, the pictorial +representing the Sacrifice of Isaac in two scenes.] + +Texts and mottoes also furnish a clue to age, for they extend backwards +beyond 1686 on but one known sampler, namely that of Martha Salter in the +Victoria and Albert Museum, dated 1651, which has the maxim, "The feare of +God is an excellent gift," although on such articles as purses and the +like they are to be found much earlier, and the "Sonnet to Queen +Elizabeth," to which we have referred, shows that they were in vogue in +1612. + +Age may also be approximated by the ornament and by the material of which +the sampler is made, which differs as time goes on. The following table +has been formed from many specimens that have come under my inspection; it +shows the earliest date at which various forms of ornament appear on dated +samplers so far as I have been able to trace them. + + Adam and Eve, figure of 1709 + Alphabet 1643 + Border enclosing sampler 1726 + Border of flowing naturalistic flowers 1730 + Boxers (and until 1758) 1648 + Crown 1691 + Eyelet form of lettering (? Anne Gover's, _circ._ 1610) 1672 + _Fleur-de-Lys_ (see, however, Plate III.) 1742 + Flower in vase 1742 + Heart 1751 + House 1765 + Inscription 1662 + Motto or text 1651 + Mustard-coloured canvas 1728 + Name of maker (? Anne Gover's, _circ._ 1610) 1648 + Numerals 1655 + Rows of ornament (latest 1741) 1648 + Stag (but only common between 1758 and 1826) 1648 + The Spies to Canaan 1804 + Verse (? Lora Standish, _circ._ 1635) 1696 + + +Lettering on Samplers + +It is from this, rather than from any other feature, that we trace the +evolution of the sampler. Originally a pattern sheet of devices and +ornaments, there were added to it in time alphabets and numerals of +various kinds, which the increased luxury of the house called for as aids +to the marking of the linen and clothes. Later on the monotony of +alphabets and numerals was varied by the addition of the maker's name, the +year, an old saw or two, and ultimately flights into moral or religious +verse. + + +Alphabets and Numerals + +Although a sampler without either alphabets or numerals would seem to be +lacking in the very essence of its being, it is almost certain that the +earliest forms did not contain either, but (like that in Plate II.) were +merely sheets of decorative designs. For the need of pattern-books of +designs would as certainly precede that of copy-books of alphabets and +numerals, as the pleasure of embroidering designs upon garments preceded +that of marking their ownership by names, and their quantity by figures. A +sampler would seldom, if ever, be used as a text-book for children to +learn letters or figures from, except with the needle, and the need for +lettering and figuring upon them would, therefore, as we have said, only +arise when garments or napery became sufficiently common and numerous to +need marking. This period had clearly been reached when our earliest dated +samplers were made, for, out of dated specimens of the seventeenth century +that I have examined, two-thirds carry the alphabet upon them, and the +majority have the numerals. It is rare to find later samplers without +them, those of the eighteenth century containing assortments of every +variety of lettering, Scottish ones especially laying themselves out for +elaborately designed and florid alphabets. With the advent of the +nineteenth century, however, the sampler began to lose its _raison +d'être_, and quite one-half of those then made omit either the alphabet, +or numerals, or both. + + +Signatures + +Initials, which are followed by signatures, occur upon samplers of the +earliest date. It is true that one or two of the undated samplers, which +probably are earlier than any of the dated ones, carry neither, but as a +rule initials, or names, are found upon all the early specimens. Thus the +early one in Plate II. has the initials "M. C.," and the two dated in 1648 +are marked respectively "A. S." and "Rebekah Fisher," and that of 1649, +"S. I. D." In later times unsigned samplers are the exception. + + +Inscriptions + +The earliest inscriptions are practically only signatures, thus: "Mary +Hall is my name and when I was thirteen years of age I ended this in +1662"; or, somewhat amplified: "Ann Wattel is my name with my needle and +thred I ded this sam and if it hath en beter I wold----" (Remainder +illegible.)[4] + +The earliest inscriptions, other than a signature such as the foregoing, +that I have met with are Lora Standish's (Fig. 43) and Miles Fletwood's +referred to under "American Samplers," dated 1654 (Fig. 44), and which has +the rhyme, "In prosperity friends will be plenty but in adversity not one +in twenty." The next, dated 1686, has a saw which is singularly +appropriate to a piece of needlework: "Apparell thy self with ivstice and +cloth thy self with chastitie so shall thov bee happi and thy works +prosper. Ann Tvrner" (Fig. 8). It is dated 1686. + +[Illustration: FIG. 8.--LONG SAMPLER, SIGNED ANN TURNER, 1686. _The late +Mr A. Tuer._] + +In Plate VI., on a sampler of the same year, we have wording which is not +infrequently met with in the cycles which follow, as, for instance, in Mrs +Longman's sampler, dated 1696, and in one of 1701. It runs thus:-- + + "Look well to that thoo takest in Hand Its better worth then house or + Land. When Land is gone and Money is spent Then learning is most + Excelent Let vertue be Thy guide and it will keep the out of pride + Elizabeth Creasey Her Work done in the year 1686." + +Dated in 1693-94 are the set of samplers recording national events, to +which reference will be made elsewhere. In the last-named year (1694) a +sampler bears the verse: + + "Love thou thee Lord and he will be a tender father unto thee." + +And one of 1698, "Be not wise in thy own eyes."--_Sarah Chamberlain._ + +[Illustration: PLATE V.--PORTION OF SAMPLER BY MARY HALL. DATED 1662. + +This plate only shows the upper half of a remarkably preserved Sampler. +Like its fellow (_Plate VI._) it is distinguished by its admirable +decorative qualities of colour and design. The lower portion, not +reproduced, consists of three rows of designs in white thread, and four +rows of drawn work. The inscription, which is in the centre, and is +reproduced in part, runs thus: + + "MaRy HaLL IS My NaMe AnD WHen I WaS THIRTeen + yeaRS OF AGE I ENDED THIS In 1662." + +Size, 34 x 8-1/2.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 9.--SAMPLER BY ELIZ. BAKER. DATED 1739.] + +A preference for saws rather than rhymes continues until the eighteenth +century is well advanced. The following are instances:-- + + "If you know Christ you need know little more if not Alls lost that + you have LaRnt before."--_Elisabeth Bayles_, 1703. + + "The Life of Truth buteafieth Youth and maketh it lovely to behold + Blessed are they that maketh it there staey and pryes it more than + gold it shall be to them a ryoul diadem transending all earthly + joy."--_Elisabeth Chester_, 1712. + + "Keep a strict guard over thy tongue, thine ear and thine eye, lest + they betray thee to talk things vain and unlawful. Be sparing of thy + words, and talk not impertinently or in passion. Keep the parts of thy + body in a just decorum, and avoid immoderate laughter and levity of + behaviour."--_Sarah Grimes_, 1730. + + "Favour is deceitful And beauty is vain But a woman that feareth the + Lord She shall be praised."--_Mary Gardner, aged 9_, 1740. + +Another undated one of the period is:-- + + "Awake, arise behold thou Hast thy Life ALIFe ThY Breath ABLASt at + night LY Down Prepare to have thy Sleep thy Death thy Bed Thy Grave." + +One with leisure might search out the authors of the doggerel religious +and moral verses which adorned samplers. The majority are probably due to +the advent of Methodism, for we only find them occurring in any numbers in +the years which followed that event. It may be noted that "Divine and +Moral Songs for Children," by Isaac Watts, was first published in 1720, +that Wesley's Hymns appeared in 1736, and Dr Doddridge's in 1738. + +We may here draw attention to the eighteenth-century fashion of setting +out the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments (Fig. 9), and other +lengthy manuscripts from the Old Testament in tablets similar to those +painted and hung in the churches of the time. The tablets in the samplers +are flanked on either side by full length figures of Christ and Moses, or +supported by the chubby winged cherubs of the period which are the common +adornments of the Georgian gravestones. In the exhibition at The Fine Art +Society's were specimens dated 1715, 1735, 1740, 1757, and 1762, the +Belief taking, in three instances, the place of the Commandments. On +occasions the pupil showed her proficiency in modern languages as well as +with the needle, by setting out the Lord's Prayer in French, or even in +Hebrew. + +Contemporaneously with such lengthy tasks in lettering as the Tables of +the Law, came other feats of compassing within the confines of a sampler +whole chapters of the Bible, such as the 37th Chapter of Ezekiel, worked +by Margaret Knowles in 1738; the 134th Psalm (a favourite one), by +Elizabeth Greensmith in 1737, and of later dates the three by members of +the Brontë family. + +The last-named samplers (Figs. 10, 11, and 12) by three sisters of the +Brontë family which, through the kindness of their owner, Mr Clement +Shorter, I am able to include here, have, it will be seen, little except a +personal interest attaching to them. In comparison with those which +accompany them they show a strange lack of ornament, and a monotony of +colour (they are worked in black silk on rough canvas) which deprive them +of all attractiveness in themselves. But when it is remembered who made +them, and their surroundings, these appear singularly befitting and +characteristic. For, as the dates upon them show, they were produced in +the interval which was passed by the sisters at home between leaving one +ill-fated school, which caused the deaths of two sisters, and their +passing to another. It was a mournful, straitened home in which they +lived, one in which it needed the ardent Protestantism that is breathed in +the texts broidered on the samplers to uphold them from a despair that can +almost be read between the lines. It was also, for one at least of +them, a time of ceaseless activity of mind and body, and we can well +understand that the child Charlotte, who penned, between the April in +which her sampler was completed and the following August, the manuscript +of twenty-two volumes, each sixty closely written pages, of a catalogue, +did not take long to work the sampler which bears her name. The ages of +the three girls when they completed these samplers were: Charlotte, 13; +Emily Jane, 11; and Anne, 10. + +[Illustration: FIG. 10.--SAMPLER BY CHARLOTTE BRONTË. DATED 1829. _Mr +Clement Shorter._] + +[Illustration: FIG. 11.--SAMPLER BY EMILY JANE BRONTË. DATED 1829. _Mr +Clement Shorter._] + +[Illustration: FIG. 12.--SAMPLER BY ANNE BRONTË. DATED 1830. _Mr Clement +Shorter._] + +But the lengthiest task of all was set to six poor little mortals in the +Orphans' School, near Calcutta, in Bengal, East Indies. These wrought six +samplers "by the direction of Mistress Parker," dividing between them the +longest chapter in the Bible, namely, the 119th Psalm. It was evidently a +race against time, for on each is recorded the date of its commencement +and finish, being accomplished by them between the 14th of February and +the 23rd of June 1797. At the top of each is a view of a different portion +of the school; one of these is reproduced in Fig. 3. + +Returning to the chronological aspect of sampler inscriptions. As the +eighteenth century advances we find verses coming more and more into +fashion, although at first they are hardly distinguishable from prose, as, +for instance, in the following of 1718:-- + + "You ask me why I love, go ask the glorius son, why it throw the world + doth run, ask time and fat [fate?] the reason why it flow, ask dammask + rosees why so full they blow, and all things elce suckets fesh which + forceeth me to love. By this you see what car my parents toock of me. + Elizabeth Matrom is my name, and with my nedell I rought the same, and + if my judgment had beene better, I would have mended every letter. And + she that is wise, her time will pris (e), she that will eat her + breakfast in her bed, and spend all the morning in dressing of her + head, and sat at deaner like a maiden bride, God in His mercy may do + much to save her, but what a cas is he in that must have her. + Elizabeth Matrom. The sun sets, the shadows fleys, the good consume, + and the man he deis." + +More than one proposal has been made, in all seriousness, during the +compilation of this volume, that it would add enormously to its interest +and value if every inscription that could be found upon samplers were +herein set out at length. It is needless to say that it has been +altogether impossible to entertain such a task. It is true that the +feature of samplers which, perhaps, interests and amuses persons most is +the quaint and incongruous legends that so many of them bear, but I shall, +I believe, have quite sufficiently illustrated this aspect of the subject +if I divide it into various groups, and give a few appropriate examples of +each. These may be classified under various headings. + + +Verses commemorating Religious Festivals + +These are, perhaps, more frequent than any others. Especially is this the +case with those referring to Easter, which is again and again the subject +of one or other of the following verses:-- + + "The holy feast of Easter was injoined + To bring Christ's Resurrection to our Mind, + Rise then from Sin as he did from the Grave, + That by his Merits he your Souls may save. + + "White robes were worn in ancient Times they say, + And gave Denomination to this Day + But inward Purity is required most + To make fit Temples for the Holy Ghost." + _Mary Wilmot_, 1761. + +Or the following:-- + + "See how the lilies flourish wite and faire, + See how the ravens fed from heaven are; + Never distrust thy God for cloth and bread + While lilies flourish and the Raven's fed." + _Mary Heaviside_, 1735. + +Or the variation set out on Fig. 19. + +[Illustration: PLATE VI.--PORTION OF SAMPLER BY ELIZABETH CREASEY. DATED +1686. _The Late Mr A. Tuer._ + +This Sampler, of which only the upper half is reproduced, is remarkable +not only for the decorative qualities of its design but for its perfect +state of preservation. It consists, besides the four rows which are seen, +of one other in which the drawn work is subservient in quantity to the +embroidery, and of seven rows in which the reverse is the case. The +inscription, which is set out below, alternates in rows with those of the +design. The butter colour of the linen ground is well reproduced in the +plate. The original measures 32×8. + +INSCRIPTION. + + "Look Well to that thou takest in + Hand Its Better Worth Then house + Or Land When Land is gone and + Money is spent Then learn + ing is most Excelent + Let vertue Be Thy guide and it will kee + p the out of pride Elizabeth Creasey + Her work Done in the year 1686."] + +As also in that by Kitty Harison, in our illustration, Fig. 13. + +[Illustration: FIG. 13.--EASTER SAMPLER BY KITTY HARISON. DATED 1770.] + +The Christmas verse is usually:-- + + "Glory to God in the Highest"; + +but an unusual one is that in Margaret Fiddes's sampler, 1773:-- + + "The Night soon past, it ran so fast. The Day + Came on Amain. Our Sorrows Ceast Our Hopes + Encreast once more to Meet again A Star appears + Expells all Fears Angels give Kings to + Know A Babe was sent With that intent to + Conquer Death below." + +Ascension Day is marked by:-- + + "The heavens do now retain our Lord + Until he come again, + And for the safety of our souls + He there doth still remain. + And quickly shall our King appear + And take us by the hand + And lead us fully to enjoy + The promised Holy Land." + _Sarah Smith_, 1794. + +Whilst Passion Week is recognisable in:-- + + "Behold the patient Lamb, before his shearer stands," etc. + +The Crucifixion itself, although it is portrayed frequently in German +samplers (examples in The Fine Art Society's Exhibition were dated 1674, +1724, and 1776), is seldom, if ever, found in English ones, but for Good +Friday we have the lines:-- + + "Alas and did my Saviour bleed + For such a worm as I?" + + +Verses taking the Form of Prayers, Dedications, Etc. + +Amongst all the verses that adorn samplers there were none which +apparently commended themselves so much as those that dedicated the work +to Christ. The lines usually employed are so familiar as hardly to need +setting out, but they have frequent varieties. The most usual is:-- + + "Jesus permit thy gracious name to stand + As the first Effort of young Phoebe's hand + And while her fingers on this 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." + _Harriot Phoebe Burch, aged 7 years_, 1822. + +A variation of this appears in the much earlier piece of Lora Standish +(Fig. 43). + +Another, less common, but which again links the sampler with a religious +aspiration, runs:-- + + "Better by Far for Me + Than all the Simpsters Art + That God's commandments be + Embroider'd on my Heart." + _Mary Cole_, 1759. + +Verses to be used upon rising in the morning or at bedtime are not +unfrequent; the following is the modest prayer of Jane Grace Marks +(1807). + + "If I am right, oh teach my heart + Still in the right to stay, + If I am wrong, thy grace impart + To find that better way." + +But one in my possession loses, by its ludicrousness, all the +impressiveness which was intended:-- + + "Oh may thy powerful word + Inspire a breathing worm + To rush into thy kingdom Lord + To take it as by storm. + + Oh may we all improve + Thy grace already given + To seize the crown of love + And scale the mount of heaven." + _Sarah Beckett_, 1798. + +Lastly, a prayer for the teacher:-- + + "Oh smile on those whose liberal care + Provides for our instruction here; + And let our conduct ever prove + We're grateful for their generous love." + _Emma Day_, 1837. + + +Verses Referring to Life and Death + +The fact that "Religion never was designed to make our pleasures less" +appears seldom or never to have entered into the minds of those who set +the verses for young sampler workers. From the earliest days when they +plied their needle their thoughts were directed to the shortness of life +and the length of eternity, and many a healthy and sweet disposition must +have run much chance of being soured by the morbid view which it was +forced to take of the pleasures of life. For instance, a child of seven +had the task of broidering the following lines:-- + + "And now my soul another year + Of thy short life is past + I cannot long continue here + And this may be my last." + +And one, no older, is made to declare that:-- + + "Thus sinners trifle, young and old, + Until their dying day, + Then would they give a world of gold + To have an hour to pray." + +Or:-- + + "Our father ate forbidden Fruit, + And from his glory fell; + And we his children thus were brought + To death, and near to hell." + +Or again:-- + + "There's not a sin that we commit + Nor wicked word we say + But in thy dreadful book is writ + Against the judgment day." + +A child was not even allowed to wish for length of days. Poor little +Elizabeth Raymond, who finished her sampler in 1789, in her eighth year, +had to ask:-- + + "Lord give me wisdom to direct my ways + I beg not riches nor yet length of days + My life is a flower, the time it hath to last + Is mixed with frost and shook with every blast." + +A similar idea runs through the following:-- + + "Gay dainty flowers go simply to decay, + Poor wretched life's short portion flies away; + We eat, we drink, we sleep, but lo anon + Old age steals on us never thought upon." + +Not less lugubrious is Esther Tabor's sampler, who, in 1771, amidst +charming surroundings of pots of roses and carnations, intersperses the +lines:-- + + "Our days, alas, our mortal days + Are short and wretched too + Evil and few the patriarch says + And well the patriarch knew." + +A very common verse, breathing the same strain, is:-- + + "Fragrant the rose, but it fades in time + The violet sweet, but quickly past the Prime + White lilies hang their head and soon decay + And whiter snow in minutes melts away + Such and so with'ring are our early joys + Which time or sickness speedily destroys." + +And the melancholy which pervades the verse on the sampler of Elizabeth +Stockwell (Fig. 14) is hardly atoned for by the brilliant hues in which +the house is portrayed. + +[Illustration: PLATE VII.--SAMPLER BY HANNAH DAWE. 17TH CENTURY. _Formerly +in the Author's Collection._ + +This is a much smaller specimen than we are wont to find in "long" +Samplers, for it measures only 18 × 7-1/4. It differs also from its +fellows in that the petals of the roses in the second and third of the +important bands are in relief and superimposed. The rest of the +decoration, on the other hand, partakes much more of an outline character +than is usual. As a specimen of a seventeenth-century Sampler it leaves +little to be desired. It is signed Hannah Dawe.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 14.--SAMPLER BY ELIZABETH STOCKWELL. 1832. _The late +Mr A. Tuer._] + +The gruesomeness of the grave is forcibly brought to notice in a sampler +dated 1736:-- + + "When this you see, remember me, + And keep me in your mind; + And be not like the weathercock + That turn att every wind. + When I am dead, and laid in grave, + And all my bones are rotten, + By this may I remembered be + When I should be forgotten." + +Ann French put the same sentiment more tersely in the lines:-- + + "This handy work my friends may have + When I am dead and laid in grav." 1766. + +It is a relief to turn to the quainter and more genuine style of Marg't +Burnell's verse taken from Quarles's "Emblems," and dated 1720:-- + + "Our life is nothing but a winters day, + Some only breake their fast, & so away, + Others stay dinner, & depart full fed, + The deeper age but sups and goes to bed. + Hee's most in debt, that lingers out the day, + Who dyes betimes, has lesse and lesse to pay." + +This verse has crossed the Atlantic, and figures on American samplers. + +But the height of despair was not reached until the early years of the +nineteenth century, when "Odes to Passing Bells," and such like, brought +death and the grave into constant view before the young and hardened +sinner thus:-- + + ODE TO A PASSING BELL + + "Hark my gay friend that solemn toll + Speaks the departure of a soul + 'Tis gone, that's all we know not where, + Or how the embody'd soul may fare + Only this frail & fleeting breath + Preserves me from the jaws of death + Soon as it fails at once I'm gone + And plung'd into a world not known." + _Ann Gould Seller, Hawkchurch_, 1821. + +Samplers oftentimes fulfilled the rôle of funeral cards, as, for instance, +this worked in black:-- + + "In memory of my beloved Father + John Twaites who died April 11 1829. + Life how short--Eternity how long. + Also of James Twaites + My grandfather who died Dec. 31, 1814. + + How loved, how valu'd once, avails thee not + To whom related, or by whom begot, + A heap of dust alone remains of thee, + 'Tis all thou art, and all the proud shall be." + +Curiously enough, whilst compiling this chapter the writer came across an +artillery non-commissioned officer in the Okehampton Camp who, in the +intervals of attending to the telephone, worked upon an elaborate Berlin +woolwork sampler, ornamented with urns, and dedicated "To the Memory of my +dear father," etc. + + +Duties to Parents and Preceptors + +That the young person who wrought the sampler had very much choice in the +selection of the saws and rhymes which inculcate obedience to parents and +teachers is hardly probable, and it is not difficult to picture the +households or schools where such doctrines as the following were set out +for infant hands to copy:-- + + "All youth set right at first, with Ease go on, + And each new Task is with new Pleasure done, + But if neglected till they grow in years + And each fond Mother her dear Darling spares, + Error becomes habitual and you'll find + 'Tis then hard labour to reform the Mind." + +The foregoing is taken from the otherwise delightful sampler worked by a +child with the euphonious name of Ann Maria Wiggins, in her seventh year, +that is reproduced in Plate XII. + +Preceptors also appear to have thought it well to early impress upon +pliable minds the dangers which beset a child inclined to thoughts of +love:-- + + "Oh Mighty God that knows how inclinations lead + Keep mine from straying lest my Heart should bleed. + + Grant that I honour and succour my parents dear + Lest I should offend him who can be most severe. + + I implore ore me you'd have a watchful eye + That I may share with you those blessings on high. + + And if I should by a young youth be Tempted, + Grant I his schemes defy and all He has invented." + _Elizabeth Bock_, 1764. + +Samplers were so seldom worked by grown-up folk that one can hardly +believe that the following verse records an actual catastrophe to the +peace of mind of Eleanor Knot:-- + + ON DISINGENUITY + + "With soothing wiles he won my easy heart + He sigh'd and vow'd, but oh he feigned the smart; + Sure of all friends the blackest we can find + Are those ingrates who stab our peace of mind." + +A not uncommon and much more agreeable verse sets forth the duties of man +towards woman in so far as matrimony is concerned:-- + + "Adam alone in Paradise did grieve + And thought Eden a desert without Eve, + Until God pitying his lonesome state + Crown'd all his wishes with a lovely mate. + Then why should men think mean, or slight her, + That could not live in Paradise without her." + +Samplers bearing the foregoing verse are usually decorated with a picture +of our first parents and the Tree of Knowledge, supported by a demon and +angel. + +The parent or teacher sometimes spoke through the sampler, as thus, in +Lucia York's, dated 1725:-- + + "Oh child most dear + Incline thy ear + And hearken to God's voice." + +Or again:-- + + "Return the kindness that you do receive + As far as your ability gives leave." + _Mary Lounds._ + + "Humility I'd recommend + Good nature, too, with ease, + Be generous, good, and kind to all, + You'll never fail to please." + _Susanna Hayes._ + + +Samplers Expatiating upon Virtue or Vice, Wealth or Poverty, Happiness or +Misery + +Amongst these may be noted:-- + + "Happy is he, the only man, + Who out of choice does all he can + Who business loves and others better makes + By prudent industry and pains he takes. + God's blessing here he'll have and man's esteem, + And when he dies his works will follow him." + +Of those dealing with wealth or poverty none, perhaps, is more incisive +than this:-- + + "The world's a city full of crooked streets, + And Death's the market-place where all men meet; + If life was merchandise that men could buy + The rich would always live, the poor alone would die." + +An American sampler has the following from Burns's "Grace before Meat":-- + + "Some men have meat who cannot eat + And some have none who need it. + But we have meat and we can eat, + And so the Lord be thanked." + +[Illustration: PLATE VIII.--SAMPLER BY MARY POSTLE. DATED 1747. _Mrs C. J. +Longman._ + +An early specimen of a bordered Sampler, dated 1747, the rows being +relegated to a small space in the centre, where they are altogether an +insignificant feature in comparison with the border. Some of the ornament +to which we have been accustomed in the rows survives, as for instance the +pinks, but a new one is introduced, namely, the strawberry. Here are also +the Noah's Ark animals, trees, etc., which henceforward become common +objects and soon transform the face of the Sampler. The border itself is +in evident imitation of the worsted flower work with which curtains, +quilts, and other articles were freely adorned in the early eighteenth +century.] + + +Inscriptions having an Interest owing to their Quaintness + +The following dates from 1740, and has as appendix the line, "God prosper +the war":-- + + "The sick man fasts because he cannot eat + The poor man fasts because he hath no meat + The miser fasts to increase his store + The glutton fasts because he can eat no more + The hypocrite fasts because he'd be condemned + The just man fasts cause he hath offended." + +An American version of this ends with:-- + + "Praise God from whom all blessings flow + We have meat enow." + +That self-conceit was not always considered a failing, is evident from the +following verses:-- + + "This needlework of mine may tell + That when a child I learned well + And by my elders I was taught + Not to spend my time for nought," + +which is concentrated and intensified in one of Frances Johnson, worked in +1797:-- + + "In reading this if any faults you see + Mend them yourself and find no fault in me." + +In a much humbler strain is this from an old sampler in Mrs Longman's +collection:-- + + "When I was young I little thought + That wit must be so dearly bought + But now experience tells me how + If I must thrive, then I must bowe + And bend unto another will, + That I might learn both arte & skill." + +Owing to the portrayal of an insect, which was not infrequently met with +in days gone by, upon the face of the sampler which bears the following +lines, it has been suggested that they were presumably written by that +creature:-- + + "Dear Debby + I love you sincerely + My heart retains a grateful sense of your past kindness + When will the hours of our + Separation be at an end? + Preserve in your bosom the remembrance + of your affectionate + Deborah Jane Berkin." + +The following, coming about the date when the abolition of the slave trade +was imminent, may have reference to it:-- + + "THERE'S mercy in each ray of light, that mortal eye e'er saw, + There's mercy in each breath of air, that mortal lips can draw, + There's mercy both for bird, and beast, in God's indulgent plan, + There's mercy for each creeping thing--But man has none for man." + _Elizabeth Jane Gates Aged 12 years_, 1829. + +Riddle samplers, such as that of Ann Witty, do not often occur:-- + + "I had both | | and a | | by both I set great store + I lent my | Money | to my | Friend | and took his word therefor + I asked my | | of my | | and nought but words I got + I lost my | | and my | | for sue him, I would not." + +Here, too, is an "Acrostick," the first letters of whose lines spell the +name of the young lady who "ended" it "Anno Dom. 1749." + + "A virgin that's Industrious Merits Praise, + Nature she Imitates in Various Ways, + Now forms the Pink, now gives the Rose its blaze. + Young Buds, she folds, in tender Leaves of green, + Omits no shade to beautify her Scene, + Upon the Canvas, see, the Letters rise, + Neatly they shine with intermingled dies, + Glide into Words, and strike us with Surprize." + _E. W._ + +As illustrations of tales the sampler of Sarah Young (Fig. 15) is an +unusual example. It deals with Sir Richard Steele's story of the loves of +Inkle and Yarico. Inkle, represented as a strapping big sailor, was cast +away in the Spanish Main, where he met and loved Yarico, an Indian girl, +but showed his baseness by selling her for a slave when he reached +Barbadoes in a vessel which rescued him. The story evidently had a +considerable, if fleeting, popularity, for it was dramatised. + + +The Design, Ornament and Colouring of Samplers + +Whilst important clues to the age of a sampler may be gathered from its +form and legend, its design and colouring are factors from which almost as +much may be learnt. + +Design can be more easily learned from considering in detail the +illustrations, which have been mainly chosen for their typifying one or +other form of it, but certain general features are so usually present that +they may be summarised here. + +No one with any knowledge of design can look through the specimens of +samplers selected for this volume without noting, first, that it is, in +the earlier specimens, appropriate to the subject, decorative in +treatment, and lends itself to a variety of treatment with the needle. +Secondly, that the decoration is not English in origin, but is usually +derived from foreign sources. Indeed, if we are to believe an old writer +of the Jacobean time, the designs were + + "Collected with much praise and industrie, + From scorching Spaine and freezing Muscovie, + From fertile France and pleasant Italie, + From Poland, Sweden, Denmarke, Germanie, + And some of these rare patternes have been set + Beyond the boundes of faithlesse Mahomet, + From spacious China and those Kingdomes East + And from great Mexico, the Indies West. + Thus are these workes farre fetch't and dearly bought, + And consequently good for ladyes thought." + +Thirdly, that after maintaining a remarkable uniformity until the end of +the seventeenth century, design falls away, and with rare exceptions +continuously declines until it reaches a mediocrity to which the term can +hardly be applied. + +[Illustration: FIG. 15.--SAMPLER BY SARAH YOUNG. ABOUT 1750. _Mrs Head._] + +The same features are noticeable in the colouring. The samplers of the +Caroline period are in the main marked by a softness and delicacy, with a +preference for tender and harmonious shades of pinks, greens, and blues, +but these quickly pass out of the schemes of colouring until their revival +a few years ago through the influence of Japan and the perspicuity, of Sir +Lazenby Liberty. This delicacy is not, as some suppose, due to time +having softened the colours, for examination shows that fading has seldom +taken place, in fact one of the most remarkable traits of the earlier +samplers is the wonderful condition of their colouring (see Mrs Longman's +sampler of 1656, Plate IV., as an example). Towards the end of the +seventeenth century the adoption of a groundwork of roughish +close-textured canvas of a canary hue also militated against this ensemble +of the colour scheme, which is now and again too vivid, especially in the +reds, a fact which may, in part, be due to their retaining their original +tint with a persistency that has not endured with the other dyes. + +During the early Georgian era sampler workers seem to have passed through +a stage of affection for deep reds, blues, and greens, with which they +worked almost all their lettering. The same colours are met with in the +large embroidered curtains of the time; it is probably due to the +influence of the tapestries and the Chinese embroideries then so much in +vogue. + +In the opening years of the eighteenth century a pride in lettering gave +rise to a series of samplers of little interest or artistic value, +consisting, as they did, of nothing else than long sentences, not readily +readable, and worked in silks in colours of every imaginable hue used +indiscriminately, even in a single word, without any thought bestowed on +harmony or effect of colouring. + +Later on, towards the middle of the century, more sober schemes of colour +set in, consisting in the abandonment of reds and the employment of little +else than blues, greens, yellows, and blacks (see Plate IX.), which are +attractive through their quietness and unity. Subsequently but little +praise can be bestowed upon samplers so far as their design is concerned. +Occasionally, as in that of Mr Ruskin's ancestress (Plate X.), a result +which is satisfactory, both in colour and design, is arrived at, but this +is generally due to individual taste rather than to tuition or example. In +this respect samplers only follow in the wake of all the other +arts--furniture and silversmiths' work, perhaps, excepted, as regards both +of which the taste displayed was also individual rather than national. + +An evil which cankered later sampler ornamentation was a desire for +novelty and variety. The earliest samplers exhibit few signs of attempts +at invention in design. A comparison of any number of them shows ideas +repeated again and again with the slightest variation. The same floral +motives are adapted in almost every instance, and one and all may well +have been employed since the days when they arrived from the Far East, +brought, it may be, by the Crusaders. But it is in no derogatory spirit +that I call attention to this lack of originality. A craftsman is doing a +worthier thing in assimilating designs which have shown their fitness by +centuries of use, patterns which are examples of fine decorative ornament +that really beautifies the object to which it is applied, than in +inventing weak and imperfect originals. No architect is accused of +plagiarism if he introduces the pointed arch, and the great designs of the +past are free and out of copyright. The Greek fret, or the Persian rose, +is as much the property of anyone as the daisy or the snowdrop, and it was +far better to make sound decorative pieces of embroidery on the lines of +these than to attempt, as was done later on, feeble originals, which have +nothing ornamental or decorative in their composition. The workers of the +East, when perfection was arrived at in a design, did not hesitate to +reproduce it again and again for centuries. + +[Illustration: PLATE IX.--SAMPLER BY E. PHILIPS. DATED 1761. _Author's +Collection._ + +Were it not that this Sampler was produced by little Miss Philips at the +tender age of seven, there would be a probability that it was unique +through its containing a portrait of the producer. For in no other example +have we so many evidences pointing to its being a record of actual facts. +For instance, there is clearly shown a gentleman pointing to his wife (in +a hooped costume), and having round him his five girls of various ages, +the youngest in the care of a nurse. In the upper left corner is his son +in charge of a tutor, whilst on the right are two maid-servants, one being +a woman of colour. This fashion for black servants is further emphasised +by the negro boy with the dog. That these should be present in this family +is not remarkable, for by the lower illustration it is evident that Mr +Philips was a traveller who had crossed the seas in his ship to where +alligators, black swans and other rare birds abounded. The work was +executed in 1761, the second year of George the Third, whose monogram and +crown are supported by two soldiers in the costume of the period. It has +been most dexterously carried out by the young lady, and it is conceived +in a delicate harmony of greens and blues which was not uncommon at that +time. Size, 19 × 12-1/2. An adaptation of this Sampler has been utilised +as the drop scene to the play of "Peter Pan."] + +But the mistress of a ladies' improving school would hardly like her +pupils to copy time after time the same designs--designs which perhaps +resembled those of a rival establishment. Such a one would be oblivious to +the fact that an ornamentalist is born not made, that the best design is +traditional, and that pupils would be far more worthily employed in +perpetuating ornamentation which had been invented by races intuitively +gifted for such a purpose, than in attempting feeble products of her +own brain. So, too, results show that she was, as a rule, unaware that +good design is better displayed in simplicity than in pretentiousness. As +that authority on design, the late Lewis Day, wrote in his volume on +Embroidery, "The combination of a good designer and worker in the same +person is an ideal very occasionally to be met with, and any attempt to +realise it generally fails." + +Samplers show in increasing numbers as the end approaches that their +designers were ignorant of most of the elementary rules of ornamentation +in needlework, such, for instance, as that the pictorial is not a suitable +subject for reproduction, nor the delineation of the human figure, nor +that the floral and vegetable kingdom, whilst lending itself better than +aught else, should be treated from the decorative, and not the realistic +point of view. + +We will now pass on to consider generally the forms of decoration most +usually met with. + + +Sampler Design: the Human Figure + +Whilst embroideries in imitation of tapestries deal almost entirely with +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._] + + +PART II + +Embroideries in the Manner of Tapestry Pictures + + +The Exhibition at The Fine Art Society's included, besides samplers, a +gallery containing embroideries, the like of which had not previously been +seen together, and as to the history of which text-books were altogether +silent. Exhibited collectively, they not only formed a most interesting +and unusual whole, but they were clearly the result of a widespread +fashion. Specimens were forthcoming in considerable numbers, and were +regarded by their owners with a proper appreciation of their archæological +value, but with a diffidence as to their history and origin which was not +surprising. Under these circumstances it seemed that the occasion of +their being brought together should not be lost, and that some +illustration of representative specimens, some setting down of any +deductions which might be arrived at from their examination and +comparison, and some collation of the information which was supplied by +their owners should be taken in hand. + +It was, however, at the outset a matter of no little trouble to find a +title which, while it identified and included them, yet excluded those +that it was felt necessary to omit. Had a shortened phrase, such as +"Embroidered Pictures," been selected, readers would reasonably have +expected to find a survey of that large class of embroideries, now +somewhat in vogue, which imitate the coloured engravings of the late +eighteenth century, and, perhaps, even of the Berlin wool-work travesties +of Landseer and his contemporaries. "Stuart Embroidered Pictures," or +"Seventeenth-Century Embroidered Pictures," would have better served the +purpose were it not that some of the examples precede, and some follow, +the period covered by either. Besides, some pieces are not pictures, +whilst others, though pictorial in subject, are covers to caskets, etc. + +The majority, however, have this in common, that they represent a phase of +embroidery which, curiously enough, originated contemporaneously with the +introduction of the manufacture of tapestry into this country, became +popular concurrently with it, and passed out of favour when the production +of that textile ceased in England for lack of support. It was this +relationship, which I shall shortly proceed to establish, that decided the +title which is found at the heading of this part. + +In endeavouring to trace the origin of these embroideries I have been, +curiously enough, confronted with exactly the same difficulties that I +encountered in dealing with samplers, namely:-- + +1. The industry has no apparent infancy, all the pieces having the same +matured appearance. + +2. No specimen earlier than the reign of Elizabeth has come under my +notice. This does not arise from the decay inseparable from the life of a +fairly perishable article, for amongst the earliest specimens may be +counted the best preserved; besides, similar work, as, for instance, the +embroidery of book covers which was subjected to harder usage, extends for +centuries further back. + +[Illustration: PLATE XV.--TAPESTRY EMBROIDERY. THE STORY OF HAGAR AND +ISHMAEL. ABOUT 1630. + +The common subject amongst Tapestry workers of Hagar and Ishmael is told +somewhat fully here in three scenes. In the first we have Sarah and Isaac +at the tent door, in the second Abraham dismissing Hagar, and in the third +the angel visiting Ishmael in the desert. + +The embroidery is one of those where flat and raised work are conjoined. +The sky might be woven, so fine are the stitches, the landscape is made up +of a variety of open stitches which are used in lace, but in this instance +have been worked on the canvas, the faces are modelled in cotton wool and +covered with silk, and the animals (lion and stag) are similarly modelled. +The piece is the property of Miss Taintor, of Hartford, U.S.A. Size, +14-1/2 × 19-1/2.] + +It is for these reasons that I am disposed to attach importance to the +theory that the fashion originated with the introduction into England of +tapestry, that, like tapestry, it quickly sprang into vogue, and like that +article as quickly died out, having for some half a century been an +agreeable occupation for deft hands to busy themselves about. + +If we glance for a moment at the history of tapestry in this country, it +will be seen how entirely it mirrors that of the embroideries under +notice. Tapestry, as an English manufacture, and tapestry of sufficient +amount to afford opportunities to any but a few to imitate it, can hardly +be said to have existed in this country prior to the seventeenth century. +In the king's palaces, and in those of his wealthy ministers and nobles, +this form of decoration was undoubtedly in use in remote times, perhaps as +early as in those of other nations, but small interest was taken in its +production in comparison with that by foreign countries, even those so +contiguous as France and the Netherlands. In fact, until the close of the +sixteenth century, but one manufactory is known to have existed in +England, namely, that of Burcheston, founded towards the end of the reign +of Henry VIII. by William Sheldon, styled "The only author and beginner of +tapestry, within this realm." It was not until the year 1620 that James +I., stimulated by the example of Henri IV., enlisted in his service a +number of Flemish workmen and established at Mortlake the factory which +quickly attained to a success which was only rivalled by that of the +Gobelins. The industry on the banks of the Thames developed rapidly, and +secured European recognition, thanks to the extreme interest taken in it +by James I., and still more so by Charles I., aided, as he was, by the +invaluable co-operation of Rubens and Vandyck. Tapestry made under royal +patronage quickly became the fashion and hobby, and although under the +Commonwealth its continuance was threatened, it received fresh favours and +subventions under Charles II., at the end of whose reign, however, it not +only declined, but practically ceased to exist. + +It can readily be understood that the prevalence of such a fashion, +coinciding with a period when every lady in the land was an adept with her +needle, would stimulate many to imitate on a smaller scale the famed +productions of the loom, for nothing would better accord with the +tapestry-covered walls, than cushions for the oaken chairs, or pictures or +mirrors for panelled walls, worked in the same materials. Hence it is +probable that all the earlier embroideries were in imitation of tapestry, +and worked only in stitches which resembled those of the loom, and that +the pieces where we find varieties of stitches introduced, as well as +figures, dresses, and animals in relief, are subsequent variations and +fancied improvements on the original idea.[10] This is borne out by an +examination of dated pieces, none of those bearing these additions being +contemporaneous with the introduction of the tapestry industry, whilst +only those having a plain surface are found amongst the earliest +specimens.[11] + +[Illustration: Plate XVI.--Tapestry Embroidery. Charles I. and his Queen. +About 1630. + +None of the Embroideries reproduced in this volume approach this in their +imitation of Tapestry, it being a facsimile on a small scale in needlework +of a large panel. Its resemblance is increased by the border, which adds +considerably to its interest and value. Both Sovereigns are crowned, the +King wearing a cloak, a vest and breeches which would appear to be all in +one (the latter garnished at the knees with many points), boots with huge +tops, and big spurs. On either side of the royal pair stand a chamberlain +and a lady of honour. The house in the background points to the Tapestry +having been designed by a Netherlander.] + +Embroidery probably reached the zenith of its popularity in the late +sixteenth century. It was then of so much importance that Queen Elizabeth +granted a charter of incorporation to an Embroiderers' Company who had a +hall in Gutter Lane. In order to encourage the pursuit foreign +embroideries were in this and the following reigns considered to be +contraband, but this protection, instead of improving, practically rang +the death knell of the Art. + +It will be seen from the foregoing that these little embroideries have an +abiding interest of a threefold nature. First that arising out of the +subjects that are depicted thereon, and which, though limited in range, +present considerable differences when compared one with another, quite +sufficient to make them individual in character. Next they afford, upon +examination, a large amount of historical material, some of it of a +valuable kind, concerning the fashions and cranks of the time, material +which has not hitherto met with recognition such as it deserves. Lastly, +they are admirable specimens of needlework, and in this are quite as +noteworthy as samplers, a single piece often containing as many varieties +of clever stitches as may be found in a dozen samplers. All that concerns +them on this last-named account will be found in the section devoted to +"Stitchery." I will, therefore, proceed to examine them collectively from +the two first points of view, leaving any remarks which they may +separately call for to the notes which accompany the reproductions. + + +The Subjects of Tapestry Embroideries + +These are, as we have noted, somewhat limited as regards range, and +somewhat limited within that range. This is, perhaps, even more so than in +the case of the parent tapestries, for whilst they frequently travel into +the realms of mythology, the reverse is the case with the embroidered +pictures. In the royal palaces of Henry VIII. we find the Tales of Thebes +and Troy, the Life and Adventures of Hercules, and of Jupiter and Juno, +depicted in tapestry more often, perhaps, than sacred subjects, but this +is not so with our little pictures. For instance, there were but two +profane subjects in the Embroidery Exhibition, "Orpheus charming the +animals with his lute," and the "Judgment of Paris" (Fig. 56); whereas +there were at least half a dozen of "Esther and Ahasuerus," and more than +one "Susannah and the Elders," "Adam and Eve," "Abraham and Hagar," +"Joseph and Potiphar," "David and Abigail," "Queen of Sheba," and "Jehu +and Jezebel." + +Our first parents naturally afforded one of the earliest Biblical subjects +for tapestry. Thus a description of a manor house in King John's time +states that in the corner of a certain apartment stood a bed, the tapestry +of which was enwrought with gaudy colours representing Adam and Eve in the +Garden of Eden, and we read in a fifteenth-century poem by H. Bradshaw, +concerning the tapestry in the Abbey of Ely, that:-- + + "The storye of Adam there was goodly wrought + And of his wyfe Eve, bytwene them the serpente." + +In embroidered pictures the working of the nude figures on a necessarily +much smaller scale would appear to have been a difficulty it was hard to +contend with, and we consequently find the subject treated for the most +part rather from the point of view of the animals to be introduced than +from that of our first parents. + +Curiously enough, Adam and Eve came to the front again as a most popular +subject in samplers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, at a time +when a knowledge of the draughtsmanship of the human figure appeared to be +even slighter than heretofore. Consequently, they were usually of the most +primitive character, standing on either side of a Tree of Knowledge, from +which depends the serpent. + +[Illustration: FIG. 56.--THE JUDGMENT OF PARIS. ABOUT 1630. _Late in the +Author's Collection._] + +Passing onwards in Bible history we find in tapestry embroideries several +incidents in the life of Abraham. First the entertainment of the angels +and the promise made to him; next the casting forth of Hagar and Ishmael +(Plate XV.), oft repeated, perhaps, because of the many incidents in the +story capable of illustration; then the offering up of Isaac, as +illustrated in Plate IV. "Moses in the Bullrushes" (Fig. 57) completes the +illustrations from the Pentateuch. Few other subjects are met with until +we reach the life of David as pictured in "David and Goliath" and "David +and Abigail." To these follow the visit of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon, +and the judgment of that ruler. But the most popular subject of all would +seem to be the episode of Queen Esther and King Ahasuerus (Plate XVIII.), +from which Mordecai sitting in the King's Gate, Esther adventuring on the +King's favour, the banquet to Haman, and his end on the gallows, furnished +delightfully sensational episodes, although the main reason for its +frequency doubtless depended upon its offering an opportunity of honouring +the reigning kings and queens by figuring them as the great monarch +Ahasuerus and his beautiful consort, a reason also for the frequent +selection of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. The only incident subsequent +to this is one hardly to be expected, namely, "Susannah and the Elders," +from the Apocrypha (Plate XIV.). The New Testament, curiously enough, +seems to have received but scant attention, even the birth of Christ being +but seldom illustrated. + +If space permitted it would be a matter of interest to trace the reasons +for this unexpectedness of subject. It may have arisen from the fact that +the English at this time were "the people of one book, and that book the +Bible." It is, however, more readily conceivable that the selection was a +survival of the times when the mainstay of all the Arts was the Church, +and the majority of the work, all the world over, was produced in its +service, and therefore naturally was imbued with a religious flavouring. + +Again, the pieces being in imitation of tapestries, the subjects would +naturally follow those figured thereon. Now we find, curiously enough, in +the "Story of Tapestrys in the Royal Palaces of Henry VIII.," that whilst +there were a few such subjects as "Jupiter and Juno," and "Thebes and +Troy," the majority were the following: In the Tower of London, "Esther +and Ahasuerus"; in Durham Palace, "Esther" and "Susannah"; in Cardinal +Wolsey's Palace, the "Petition of Esther," the "Honouring of +Mordecai," and the "History of Susannah and the Elders," bordered with the +Cardinal's arms, subjects identical with those represented in our little +embroidered pictures. + +[Illustration: PLATE XVII.--LID OF A CASKET. THE JUDGMENT OF PARIS. ABOUT +1630. _Formerly in the Author's Collection._ + +Reproduces the gay and well-preserved top of a writing box. The figures +which stand under a festooned bower may represent Paris handing the apple +to Venus. The dress of the female is of the time of Charles I., which is +the date of the casket, the interior of which is lined in part with that +beautiful shade of red so popular at this time, and in part with mirrors +which reflect a Flemish engraving which lines the bottom. An upper tray is +a mass of ill-concealed secret drawers. Size, 12 × 11 inches.] + +It has been claimed for many of these pieces that they are the product of +those prolific workers the nuns of Little Gidding, but the assertion rests +on as little basis as does that which ascribes all the embroidered book +covers to the same origin. The subjects, although sacred in character, are +too mundane in habit to render it at all probable that they were worked in +the seclusion of a country nunnery. + +The foreign origin of the tapestries (even those which were manufactured +in England being made and designed by foreigners) accounts for the foreign +flavour which pervades their backgrounds and accessories. It has, +consequently, been asserted that the inspiration of these embroidery +pictures is also foreign, the assertion being based on the fact that the +buildings are for the most part of Teutonic design. This is not my +opinion. The buildings, it is true, for the most part assume a Flemish or +German air, but this is probably due to the reason given at the +commencement of this paragraph. It might, with equal force, be held that +the pieces are Italian in their origin, as their foregrounds, as we shall +presently show, largely affect that style. That either of these +suppositions is correct is negatived by the thoroughly English +contemporary costume that apparels the principal figures, which also +proves that the majority of the pieces were in the main original +conceptions, the designers following in the footsteps of their forerunners +from the times of Greece downwards, and clothing their puppets, no matter +to what age they appertained, in the contemporary dress of their own +country. This brings us to the most interesting feature of these little +pictures, namely, their value as mirrors of fashion. + + +Tapestry Embroideries as Mirrors of Fashion + +In this respect they are hardly inferior, as illustrations, to the +pictures of Vandyck or the engravings of Hollar; whilst, as sidelights to +horticultural pursuits under the Stuart kings, and of the flowers which +were then affected, they are perhaps more reliable authorities than the +Herbals from whence it has been erroneously asserted that they derived +their information. In these respects their value has been entirely +overlooked. Authorities on dress go to obscure engravings, or to the +brasses or sculptural effigies in our churches, for examples, which have, +in every instance, been designed by a man unversed in the intricacies of +dressmaking. They have failed to recognise the fact that these +embroideries are the product of hands which very certainly knew the cut of +every garment, and the intricacy of every bow, knot, and point, and which +would take a pride in rendering them not only with accuracy, but in the +latest mode. It was probably due to this desire to make their work +complete mirrors of fashion, that the embroideresses gave up illustrating +the figure in the flat, and stuffed it out like a puppet, upon which each +portion of the dress might be superimposed. An illustration of this may be +seen in the reproduction on a large scale, in the text of Part III., of +some of the figures from the piece of embroidery illustrated in Plate +XXIII.[12] + +As Sir James Linton, an eminent authority upon the dress of the period +under review, has pointed out, these embroideries bear upon their face an +impress of truth, for they usually, in the same picture, illustrate +fashions extending over a considerable period of time. This, instead +of being an inaccuracy, is unimpeachable evidence as to their correctness, +for the fact is usually overlooked that in those times a man (and a woman +also) almost invariably wore, throughout life, the costume of his early +manhood, and that in such a piece as that illustrated in Plate XIV. it is +quite accurate to represent the old men in the costume of the reign of +James I., and the young women in that of Charles I. + +[Illustration: PLATE XVIII.--TAPESTRY EMBROIDERY. THE STORY OF QUEEN +ESTHER. ABOUT 1630. + +This remarkably well-preserved piece of Embroidery represents various +incidents in the life of Queen Esther. In the centre the King stretches +forth his sceptre to the Queen; in the various corners are portrayed the +banquet, the hanging of Haman, and Mordecai and the King. It will be +noticed that the King and Queen are likenesses of Charles I. and Henrietta +Maria, and the costume is that in vogue towards the end of his reign, when +the big boots worn by the men came in for much ridicule, the tops of the +King's being "very large and turned down, and the feet two inches too +long." The needlework is of the transition period, when a better effect +was sought for by appliquéing the faces in satin, outlining the features +in silk, and making the hair of the same material. The collars and bows +are also added, and the Queen's crown is of pearls, the dais on which the +King sits being also sown with them. Size, 16-1/2 × 20-1/2.] + +The repetition, amounting almost to monotony, in the subjects of these +tapestry pieces has been urged against them, but the force of this +depreciation is considerably lessened if this question of costume and +accessories is taken into account, for a comparison even of the few pieces +which are illustrated here will show how much variety is afforded in +matters of dress, even if that of a single individual, such as Charles I., +is selected for study, although in the case of a royal personage, such as +the king, it would only be natural if there was a sameness of costume. He +may probably never have been seen by the embroiderer, who would +consequently dress him from some picture or engraving. But even here the +differences are many and interesting.[13] + +[Illustration: FIG. 57.--TAPESTRY EMBROIDERY. THE FINDING OF MOSES. ABOUT +1640. _Lady Middleton._] + +They may therefore be deemed worthy of further examination than is usually +given them, and this we have accorded in the description attached to each. +We embody, however, an instance here as it is not only an apt illustration +of the use of these little pictures as illustrations of dress, but of how +their age may be thereby ascertained. The work in question belongs to Lady +Middleton, is illustrated in Fig. 57, and its frame bears an inscription +that it dates from the sixteenth century. The condition of the needlework, +and the stitches employed, might well lead to this supposition, but the +dress of the attendant to the left of the picture almost exactly +corresponds with that on the effigy of one Dorothy Strutt, whose monument +is dated 1641. The hair flows freely on the shoulders, but is combed back +from the forehead; it is bunched behind, and from this descends a long +coverchief which falls like a mantle; the sleeves are wide at the top, but +confined at the wrist; a kerchief covers the bust, whilst the gown pulled +in at the waist sets fully all round. It will be noted that the chimneys +of the house in the background emit volumes of black smoke, a tribute to +the Wallsend coal which came only into general use in the early +seventeenth century. The greater part of the strong darks in this picture +are due to the silk having been painted with a kind of bitumen, which has +eaten away the groundwork wherever it has come into contact with it. + +The frequent selection of royal personages for illustration is one of the +features of the industry, and is probably accounted for by the majority of +the workers being persons in the higher walks of life, to whom the divine +right of kings and devotion to the Crown were very present matters in +those troublous times. It will be further noted that the only pre-Stuart +embroideries which are reproduced here (_Frontispiece_, and the covering +for a book [Fig. 58]) deal with them. + +As I have stated, yet another value attaches to these tapestry +embroideries, namely, as illustrations of the fashions in horticulture +under the Stuarts. Those who take an interest in gardening will not be +slow to recognise this, and they may even carry that interest beyond this +Stuart work to the samplers, whereon instances are not wanting of the +formal gardening which came over from Holland with King William, and +continued under the House of Hanover. + +[Illustration: FIG. 58.--PORTION OF A BOOK COVER. 16TH CENTURY. _Author's +Collection._] + +[Illustration: FIG. 59.--PURL AND APPLIED EMBROIDERY. LADY WITH A RABBIT. +ABOUT 1630. _Formerly in the Author's Collection._ + +An illustration of purl work, the whole of the smaller decorations being +in tarnished silver thread sewn upon the original satin. The figure in the +centre with a rabbit on her knees, as well as the other flowers and birds, +are appliquéd, and are in very fine coloured silks. The date of the piece +is, judging from the costume, the early part of the reign of Charles I.] + +In the embroideries we see repeated again and again the hold that Italian +gardening had obtained in this country at the time when they were +produced, owing to the grafting of ideas carried from the age of mediæval +Art. Note, for instance, the importance attached to the fountain, which +Hertzner, a German, who travelled through England at the end of the +sixteenth century, remarked upon as being such a feature in gardens. The +many columns and pyramids of marble and fountains of springing water to +which he alludes are repeated again and again in tapestry pictures. The +pools of fish which are also found in embroideries of the time were a +common feature of the gardens. We read that "A fayre garden always +contained a poole of fysshe if the poole be clene kept." (Plate XVIII., +Fig. 64, and Fig. 68.) The garden also had green galleries or pergolas +formed of light poles overgrown with roses red and white. These are +illustrated in Plate XIV. The little Noah's Ark trees did not originate in +the brain of the sampler designer, but were actualities which he saw in +the garden of the time, being as old as the Romans, who employed a +topiarius or pleacher, whose sole business was the cutting of trees into +fantastic shapes. This practice was in full swing in Italy in the +fifteenth century, and was familiarised in England by the "Hyperotomachia +Poliphili," published in 1592, although this book did not introduce it, +for Bacon in his essay on "Gardens" says that the art of pleaching was +already well known and practised in England. They are quite common objects +on the samplers of the eighteenth century, when the cult was increasingly +fostered, William and Mary having brought over the Dutch fashion of +cutting everything into queer little trifles. An illustration in +Worlidge's "Art of Gardening" might almost be a reproduction of the +sampler of 1760 (Plate IX.) with its trees all set in absolutely similar +order and size. This style, it may be remembered, was doomed upon the +advent of Capability Brown with his attempts at chastening and polishing, +but not reforming, the living landscape. + +The embroidered pictures are also interesting as showing the flowers which +found a place in the parterres of English gardens. A nosegay garden at the +beginning of the seventeenth century consisted, we read, of "gillyflowers, +marigolds, lilies, and daffodils, with such strange flowers as hyacinths, +narcissus, also the red, damaske, velvet, and double province rose, double +and single white rose, the fair and sweet scenting woodbind, double and +single, the violet nothing behind the rose for smelling sweetly." + +Figs. 59 and 60 show many of these flowers naturally disposed, as an +examination of the samplers of the period displays almost all of them in a +decorative form. + +A curious feature of these little pictures is the fondness of their makers +for introducing grubs of all kinds. This was not altogether fortuitous, or +done simply to fill a void, for some of them were certainly as much +emblems as the lion and unicorn. The caterpillar, for instance, was a +badge of Charles I. + +It speaks somewhat for the difficulty of imitating these little pictures, +that although their price has increased since this book was first +published, from a moderate to a high figure, there are as yet few spurious +or much restored pieces on the market, and the same remark may apply to +samplers. + +[Illustration: FIG. 60.--EMBROIDERY PICTURE. CHARLES I. AND HIS QUEEN. +DATED 1663. _Lord Montagu._ + +This picture is signed "K.B.," and bears the date 1663, and is, through +its composition and subject, of much interest. The king and queen stand +under an elaborate tent, on the canopy of which is emblazoned the Royal +Arms, the rose and the thistle, in heavy gold and silver bullion. The +robes of both their majesties are ornamented with coloured flowers in a +heavy silver tissue. The king is crowned and has an ermine cloak, and his +spurred white boots have pink heels.] + +[Illustration: PLATE XIX.--LID OF A CASKET. ABOUT 1660. + +We have here the top of the lid of the best preserved casket it has been +our fortune to encounter, the reproduction in no way exaggerating the +brilliancy or freshness of its colouring. The whole of the embroidery is +in high relief, and as the shadows show, much of it is detached from the +ground, as for instance the strawberries, the apples on the tree on which +the parroquet with his ruffled feathers is seated, and the pink and tulip. +For some reason not apparent, the gentleman has two left arms and hands, +in each of which he holds a hat. It is possible that the figures may be +intended for Abraham and Sarah, the latter with her flock at the well.] + + + + +[Illustration: FIG. 61.--HOLLIE POINT LACE FROM TOP OF CHRISTENING CAP. +1774. _Formerly in the Author's Collection._] + + +PART III + +I.--Stitchery of Pictures in Imitation of Tapestry and the Like + + "Tent-worke, Rais'd-worke, Laid-worke, Froste-worke, Net-worke, + Most curious Purles or rare Italian Cut-worke, + Pine Ferne-stitch, Finny-stitch, New-stitch, and Chain-stitch, + Brave Bred-stitch, Fisher-stitch, Irish-stitch, and Queen-stitch, + The Spanish-stitch, Rosemary-stitch, and Morose-stitch, + The Smarting Whip-stitch, Back-stitch, and the Cross-stitch. + All these are good, and these we must allow, + And these are everywhere in practise now." + _The Needles Excellency._--JOHN TAYLOR. + + +A Writer on the interesting subject of the stitchery of embroidered +pictures and their allies, is confronted at the outset with a serious +difficulty in the almost hopeless confusion which exists as to the proper +nomenclature of stitches. It is hardly too much to say that nearly every +stitch has something like half a dozen different names, the result of +re-invention or revival by succeeding generations, while to add to the +trouble some authorities have assigned ancient names to certain stitches +on what appears to be wholly insufficient evidence of identity. + +That stitches known as _opus Anglicanum_, _opus plumarium_, _opus +peclinum_, and so on, were used in embroidery as far back as the +thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, is proved by ancient deeds and +inventories, but what these stitches actually were we have no means of +deciding with any degree of certainty. + +We shall, therefore, in these notes describe the stitches under the names +by which they are most commonly known, or which seem to describe them most +clearly. + + +Background-Stitches + +When the backgrounds of pictures in raised or stump embroidery are not of +silk or satin left more or less visible, they are usually worked in one or +other of the innumerable varieties of cushion-stitch, so-called, it is +said, because it was first introduced in the embroidering of church +kneeling-cushions. Foremost among these ground-stitches comes tent-stitch, +in which the flat embroidered pictures of a slightly earlier period are +entirely executed. Tent-stitch is the first half of the familiar +cross-stitch, but is taken over a single thread only, all the rows of +stitches sloping the same way as a rule, although occasionally certain +desired effects of light and shade are produced by reversing the direction +of the stitches in portions of the work. An admirable example of evenly +worked tent-stitch is shown in Plate XV., although here, of course, it is +not a purely background-stitch, as it is adopted for the whole of the +work. + +[Illustration: PLATE XX.--BACK OF CASKET IN TAPESTRY EMBROIDERY. SIGNED A. +K., 1657. _Mrs Percy Macquoid._ + +We have here the true imitation of Tapestry as regards stitch, but not so +as regards composition, for it is seldom that in Tapestry we find such a +lack of proportion as exists in this case between figures and accessories, +tulips and carnations standing breast-high, and butterflies larger than +human heads. The harpy, which appears on the lower portion of the lid, is +an exceptional form of decoration. The backs of caskets are always the +least faded portions, as they have been less exposed to the sun and light; +such is the case here, although the whole is in a fine state of +preservation. It is one of the few dated pieces in existence, being signed +"A. K.," 1657.] + +Another commonly used grounding-stitch is that known in modern times +as tapestry or Gobelin-stitch. This is not infrequently confused with +tent-stitch, which it much resembles, save that it is two threads in +height, but one only in breadth. + +[Illustration: FIG. 62.--CUSHION-STITCH BACKGROUND; EMBROIDERED BOOK +COVER, DATED 1703.] + +Next in order of importance to these two stitches come the perfectly +upright ones, which, arranged in a score of different ways, have been +christened by an equal number of names. An effective kind, used for the +background of many Stuart pictures, consists of a series of the short +perpendicular stitches, arranged in a zig-zag or chevron pattern, each row +fitting into that above it. This particular stitch, or rather group of +stitches, has been named _opus pulvinarium_, but its claim to the title +does not seem very well supported. Other and more modern names are +Florentine and Hungary stitch. A neat and pretty cushion-stitch is shown +in the background of Fig. 62 on an enlarged scale. This is taken from a +quaint little needle-book dated 1703; the design itself being worked in +tent-stitch. + +Among other stitches used for grounds are the long flat satin-stitch +familiar in Japanese embroideries of all periods, and laid-stitches, +_i.e._, those formed of long threads "laid" on the satin or silk +foundation, and held down by short "couching" stitches placed at +intervals. Laid-stitch grounds, however, are oftener seen in foreign +embroideries, especially Italian and Spanish, than in English examples. + +[Illustration: FIG. 63.--EYELET-HOLE-STITCH: FROM A SAMPLER DATED 1811.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 64.--TAPESTRY EMBROIDERY (UPPER PORTION). ABOUT 1640. +_Formerly in the Author's possession._] + +Although tapestry embroidery backgrounds are in most cases worked "solid," +that is, entirely covered with close-set stitches forming an even surface, +they are occasionally found to be filled in with some variety of +open-stitch, as exemplified by Plate XV. Sometimes the lace-like effect is +produced by covering the foundation material with a surface stitch; the +first row being a buttonhole-stitch, worked into the stuff so as to form +the basis of the succeeding rows of simple lace or knotting stitches. The +last row is again worked into the foundation. When, however, a linen +canvas of rather open mesh was the material of the picture or panel, it +was not unusual to whip or buttonhole over the threads with fine silk, a +process resulting in a honeycomb-like series of small eyelet holes, as +shown in the enlargement, Fig. 63. This is taken from an early +nineteenth-century sampler, but the stitch is precisely similar to that +seen in embroideries of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. + + +Figures in Raised Needlework + +The high relief portions of the embroidery known as "stump" or "stamp" +work, which is popularly supposed to have been invented by the nuns of +Little Gidding, appear to have been almost invariably worked separately on +stout linen stretched in a frame, and applied when completed. The design +was sketched, or transferred, by means of something equivalent to our +carbonised paper, on the linen, padded with hair or wool kept in position +by a lattice-work of crossing threads, and the raised foundation, or +"stump," thus formed covered with close lace-stitches, or with satin or +silk, which, in its turn, was partly or entirely covered with embroidery, +generally in long-and-short stitch. When the figures were finished a paper +was pasted at the back to obviate any risk of frayed or loosened stitches, +and they were cut out and fastened into their proper places in the design +which had been drawn on or transferred to the silk, satin, or canvas +foundation of the actual picture. The lines of attachment are adroitly +concealed by couchings of fine cord or gimp. + +In some pieces of stump embroidery the heads and hands of the figures are +of carved wood covered in most instances with a close network of +lace-stitch, or with satin or silk, on which the eyes and mouth are either +painted or embroidered. In the more elaborate specimens, however, the +satin is merely a foundation for embroidery in long-and-short or split +stitch, the latter being a variety of the ordinary stem-stitch, in which +the needle is brought out through, instead of at the side of, the +preceding stitch. The features of faces worked in either of these stitches +are generally indicated by carefully directed lines of stem or chain +stitching worked over the ground-stitch. This latter when well worked +forms a surface scarcely distinguishable from satin in its smoothness. The +Figs. 65 and 66, which are enlargements of portions of the embroidery +illustrated in Fig. 64, show examples of this mode of working faces. + +[Illustration: FIG. 65.--FACE WORKED IN SPLIT-STITCH: ENLARGED FROM +EMBROIDERY REPRODUCED IN FIG. 64.] + +[Illustration: PLATE XXI.--BEADWORK EMBROIDERY. CHARLES II. AND HIS QUEEN, +ETC. + +The bright colouring of this picture is due to the greater portion of it +having been worked in beads, in which those of strong blue and green +predominate, only the hair and hands being worked in needlework, the +former in knotted stitches. Beadwork seems to have been extensively +utilised in seventeenth-century pictures, but it does not figure in +Samplers until a late date, and then only to a minor extent. It is +illustrated in Fig. 52, and is about a century old, having been included +in the Fine Art Society's Exhibition. + +The central figures in this piece represent Charles II. and his Queen, +Catherine of Braganza, who is represented with that curious lock of hair +on her forehead to which the King took so much objection when he saw it +for the first time upon her arrival at Southampton. The portraits within +the four circles have not at present been recognised. The late owner of +this piece purchased it in Hammersmith, and from the fact that Queen +Catherine had a house there it is possible that it may have once been a +royal possession. Size, 13-1/2 × 17-1/2.] + + +Knot-Stitches + +[Illustration: FIG. 66.--FACE WORKED IN SPLIT-STITCH: ENLARGED FROM LOWER +PORTION (NOT REPRODUCED) OF FIG. 64.] + +Knot-stitches--these, by the way, have no connection with the +knotting-work popular at the end of the seventeenth century--are +introduced freely into the stump-work pictures to represent the hair of +the human figures, together with the woolly coats of sheep and the sundry +and divers unclassified animals invariably found in this type of +embroidered picture. These knots or knotted stitches range from the small, +tightly-worked French knots which, when closely massed, produce a +sufficiently realistic imitation of a fleece, to the long bullion knots +formed by twisting the silk thread ten or twelve times round the needle +before drawing the latter through the loops. The sheep (enlarged from Fig. +64) in Fig. 67 shows very clearly the effect of the massed French knots. +The longer knot-stitches are found to be arranged in even loops sewn +closely together, or are worked loosely and placed irregularly to meet +the requirements of the design. Knot-stitches of all kinds are seen, too, +in the foliage, grass, and mossy banks, although for these couchings of +loops of fine cord, untwisted silk and gimp, as well as of purl, seem to +have been equally popular. At a later period, that is, towards the middle +of the eighteenth century, chenille replaced knot-stitches, couched loops, +and purl for the purpose, but it proved much less satisfactory both as +regards appearance and durability. + +[Illustration: FIG. 67.--KNOTTED-STITCH: ENLARGED FROM EMBROIDERY +REPRODUCED IN FIG. 64.] + +Looped-stitches are also used to indicate flowing ringlets, for which the +bullion knots would be too formal, as may be seen in Figs. 65 and 66. The +loops in these examples are of partly untwisted gimp. In flat embroidery, +it may be mentioned, the hair is frequently worked in long-and-short or +split stitch, or in short, flat satin-stitches, the lines whereof are +cleverly arranged to follow the twists of the curls. In this way the hair +of the lady, shown on an enlarged scale in Fig. 66, is worked. + + +Plush-Stitch + +This is a modern name for the stitch used in the Stuart period +embroideries for fur robes and the coats of certain beasts. It is also +known as velvet, rug, and raised stitch. To carry it out a series of loops +is worked over a small mesh or a knitting pin, each loop being secured to +the foundation stuff by a tent or cross-stitch, and when the necessary +number of rows is completed, the loops are cut as in the raised Berlin +wool-work of early Victorian days. In this stitch the ermine of the king's +robe in Plate XVIII. is worked, the black stitches meant to represent the +little tails having been put in after the completion of the white silk +ground. + + +Embroidery in Purl and Metallic Threads + +Purl, both that of uncovered metal and that variety wherein the +corkscrew-like tube is cased with silk, was generally cut into pieces of +the desired length, which were threaded on the needle and sewn down either +flat or in loops, according to the design. The greater part of the +beautiful piece of embroidery illustrated in Plate XXIII. is carried out +in coloured purl, applied in pieces sufficiently long to follow the curves +of the pattern. A small example of looped purl-work is shown in the +left-hand upper corner of Fig. 66. + +Purl embroidery, when at all on an elaborate scale, was worked in a frame +and "applied," although the slighter portions of a design were often +executed on the picture itself. The system of working all the heavier +parts of such embroideries separately and adding them piece by piece, as +it were, until the whole was complete, accounts, of course, for the +extreme rarity of a "drawn" or puckered ground in old needlework pictures +and panels. + +Besides purl, gold and silver "passing" often appears in certain sections +of the work. "Passing" is wire sufficiently thin and flexible to be passed +through instead of couched down on the foundation material, and with it +such devices as rayed suns and moons are often embroidered in +long-and-short stitch. A thicker kind of metallic thread was employed for +couching, this being made in the same manner as the Japanese thread so +largely used in modern work, save that a thin ribbon of real gold took the +place of the strip of gilt paper as a casing for the silk thread. + +Water is sometimes represented by lengths of silver purl stretched tightly +across a flat surface of satin or laid-stitches, but not infrequently, +instead of the purl, sheets of talc are laid over the silken stitchery. +The water in Susannah's bath (Plate XIV.) is covered with talc, hence it +appears light coloured in the reproduction. + +When a metallic lustre was needed, the plumules of peacocks' feathers were +occasionally employed, especially in the bodies of butterflies and +caterpillars, but these unfortunately have almost invariably suffered from +the depredations of a small insect, and it is seldom that more remains of +them in old embroideries than a few dilapidated and minute fragments, +often barely recognisable for what they are. + + +Lace-Stitches + +The needle-point lace-stitches, so profusely used in the dresses and +decorative accessories of the figures in Stuart embroideries, are, as a +rule, of a close and rather heavy type. Sometimes they are found to be +worked directly on the picture or panel as surface stitches, in the manner +already described as adopted for backgrounds; but it was undoubtedly more +usual to work the ruffles, sleeves, flower-petals, butterfly-wings, +etc., separately, fastening them into their proper places when finished. +Stiffenings of fine wire were generally sewn round the extreme edge of any +part intended to stand away from the background. A most interesting +variety of lace-stitches may be seen in the costume of the boy shown in +the enlargement (Fig. 69), taken from the panel reproduced in Fig. 64. The +small illustration (Fig. 61) heading this chapter illustrates quite a +different kind of lace-stitch, to wit, the hollie-point, which, originally +confined to church embroidery, was during the seventeenth century used to +ornament under-garments and babies' christening-robes. + +[Illustration: FIG. 68.--EMBROIDERY PICTURE. A SQUIRE AND HIS LADY. SIGNED +M. C. DATED 1657. _Mr Minet._ + +This embroidery, which bears the initials "M. C." and the date 1657 in +pearls, is notable for the variety of stitches which find a place upon it. +The central figures are dressed in elaborate costumes, the lady's robe of +yellow satin being embroidered with coloured flowers and decked with +pearls, laces, and flowers, an attire altogether inconsistent with the +Puritanical times in which she lived.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 69.--HAIR OF UNRAVELLED SILK: ENLARGEMENT OF PORTION +OF EMBROIDERY REPRODUCED IN FIG. 64.] + + +Bead Embroidery + +The actual stitchery in the old embroideries that are worked entirely, or +almost entirely, in beads, is of an extremely simple description. In the +majority of pieces the work is applied as in the case of the stump +embroideries, the beads being threaded and sewn down on the framed linen, +either flatly or over padding. In the less elaborate class of +embroideries, however, the beads are sewn directly on the satin ground; +but when this plan has been adopted the design is rarely padded at all, +although small portions of it, such as cravats, girdle-tassels, and +garter-knots, are found to be detached from the rest of the work. This is +for the most part executed with long strings of threaded beads couched +down in close-set rows. Plate XXI. represents an excellent specimen of +flat and raised bead-work combined with purl embroidery. See also Fig. 52. + + +Groundwork Tracings + +The first stage of an embroidered picture is well illustrated in Fig. 70, +which is worthy of careful study. The original is a piece of satin +measuring 9-1/2 × 8 in., and on this the design has been traced by a +pointed stylus, the deep incised lines made in the thick material having +been coloured black, probably by a transferring medium similar to +carbonised paper. The shadows have been added with a brush, evidently +wielded by an experienced hand, for not only are they gradated in the +original, but there are no signs of any difficulty in dealing with the +flow of colour on the absorbent textile. The subject of the picture is +said to be the Princess Mary and the Prince William of Orange. + +[Illustration: PLATE XXII.--TAPESTRY EMBROIDERY. DATED 1735. + +In no Embroidery in the whole of this volume has a more determined +endeavour been made to imitate Tapestry than in the little piece here +illustrated. So deftly has this been carried out that experts have +declined to believe that it is needlework, or that the gradation of blues +in the background have been obtained except through stain or dye. The +workmanship of that portion of the sky over which the bird flies appeared +also too fine for manual execution. An examination of the back has +disproved both suppositions. The piece is noteworthy for the border at the +top, which is a link connecting it with the Sampler. A date, 1735, can be +distinguished through the stain in the upper right corner.] + + +Implements Used + +[Illustration: FIG. 70.--GROUNDWORK TRACING FOR EMBROIDERED PICTURE. 17TH +CENTURY. _Mr E. Hennell._] + +It is probable that some details in the picture--acorns, fruit, and the +like--were worked with the aid of the curious little implements shown in +Fig. 71. These are thimble-shaped moulds of thin, hard wood, which have +two rows of holes pierced round their base. Through these holes are passed +the threads which form the foundation of the rows of lace or +knotting-stitches that are worked with the needle round and round the +mould until it is completely covered. The knotted purses of the +seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were possibly made on moulds of this +kind. The plate shows two of these queer little objects, as well as a long +spool or bobbin with ancient silks of various colours still wound on it, +the spool-case belonging to it, and two pieces of knotted-work in +different stages of development. + +[Illustration: FIG. 71.--MOULDS FOR KNOTTED OR LACE WORK, WITH SILK SPOOLS +AND CASE.] + +[Illustration: PLATE XXIII.--SPECIMEN OF PURL EMBROIDERY. 16TH-17TH +CENTURY. _Formerly in the Author's Collection._ + +A specimen of stitchery of various kinds, much of it in high relief, and +of purl work. The reproduction, whilst translating very faithfully the +colours, gives but little idea of the relief. Size, 12 × 16-1/2.] + + +II.--The Stitchery of Samplers, with a Note on their Materials + + "Sad sewers make sad samplers. We'll be sorry + Down to our fingers'-ends and 'broider emblems + Native to desolation--cypress sprays, + Yew-tufts and hectic leaves of various autumn + And bitter tawny rue, and bent blackthorns." + _The Soldier of Fortune._--LORD DE TABLEY. + + +Cut and Drawn-Work + +The open-work stitchery, which is so important and pleasing a feature of +the seventeenth-century sampler, is of two kinds; that is, _double_ +cut-work--the Italian _punto tagliato_--in which both warp and woof +threads are removed, save for a few necessary connecting bars, and +_single_ cut-work--_punto tirato_--wherein but one set of threads is +withdrawn. The first type (which is probably the "rare Italian cut-work" +mentioned in "The Needle's Excellency") is the immediate ancestor of +needle-point lace, and is the kind that is oftenest met with in the oldest +and finest samplers; the second approaches more nearly to the drawn-thread +embroidery worked both abroad and at home at the present day. + +In executing real double cut-work, after the surplus material has been cut +away, the supporting or connecting threads are overcast, the edges of the +cut linen buttonholed, and the spaces within this framework filled in with +lace-stitches, simple or elaborate. In the best specimens of samplers the +effect is sometimes enhanced by portions of the pattern being detached +from the ground, as in the upper part of the beautiful sampler illustrated +in Fig. 72.[14] These loose pieces usually have as basis a row of +buttonhole-stitches worked into the linen, but in some examples the lace +has been worked quite separately and sewn on. The mode of working both +double and single cut-work is shown plainly in the two enlargements (Figs. +73 and 74), which are of parts of samplers probably worked about 1660. + +[Illustration: FIG. 72--DRAWN-WORK SAMPLER. 17TH CENTURY.] + +There is a third and much simpler type of open-work occasionally found on +seventeenth-century samplers, which is carried out by piercing the linen +with a stiletto and overcasting the resulting holes so as to produce a +series of bird's-eye or eyelet stitches. All three varieties of +open-stitch are frequently seen in combination with that short, flat +satin-stitch, which, when worked in a diaper pattern with white thread or +silk on a white ground, is sometimes called damask-stitch. This pretty +combination of stitches appears in Plate VI., and also in the enlargement +(Fig. 74) already referred to. + +[Illustration: FIG. 73.--CUT AND DRAWN-WORK: ENLARGEMENT FROM 17TH-CENTURY +SAMPLER.] + + +Back-Stitch + +This stitch was largely used in the seventeenth and early eighteenth +centuries for the adornment of articles of personal clothing, as well as +of quilts and hangings, hence it is natural that it is prominent in the +samplers of the period. In the older specimens the bands of back-stitch +patterns are worked with exquisite neatness, both sides being precisely +alike; but in those of later date signs of carelessness are apparent, and +the reverse side is somewhat untidy. In no sampler examined by the writer, +however, has the back-stitch been produced by working a chain-stitch on +the wrong side of the linen, as is the case in some of the embroidered +garments of the period. + +The samplers illustrated in Plates III. and VII. are noticeable for their +good bands of back-stitching. A small section of Fig. 5 is shown on an +enlarged scale in Fig. 75. In some modern text-books of embroidery, it may +be added, the old reversible or two-sided back-stitch is distinguished as +Holbein-stitch. + +[Illustration: FIG. 74.--SATIN-STITCH AND COMBINATION OF TYPES OF +OPEN-WORK: ENLARGED FROM THE SAMPLER REPRODUCED IN FIG. 4. 17TH CENTURY.] + + +Alphabet-Stitches + +The stitches used for the lettering on samplers are three in number, to +wit, cross-stitch, bird's-eye-stitch and satin-stitch. Of the first there +are two varieties, the ordinary cross-stitch, known in later years as +sampler-stitch, and the much neater kind, in which the crossed stitches +form a perfect little square on the wrong side. This daintiest of marking +stitches is rarely seen on samplers later than the eighteenth century. + +The satin-stitch alphabets are worked in short flat stitches, not over +padding, according to the modern method of initial embroidering, and the +letters are generally square rather than curved in outline. The +bird's-eye-stitch, when used for alphabets, varies greatly in degree of +fineness. In some instances the holes are very closely overcast with +short, even stitches, but in others the latter are alternately long and +short, so that each "eyelet" or "bird's-eye" is the centre, as it were, of +a star of ray-like stitches. + +[Illustration: PLATE XXIV.--DARNING SAMPLER. 1788. + +Darning Samplers of unpretentious form date back a long way, but those +where they were conjoined to decoration, as in the specimens reproduced +here, appeared to cluster round the end of the eighteenth century. Not +only are a variety of stitches of a most intricate kind set out on them, +but they are done in gay colours, and any monotony is averted by +delicately conceived borderings. Whilst "Darning Samplers" cannot be +considered as rare, they certainly are not often met with in fine +condition. They are a standing testimony to the assiduity and dexterity of +our grandparents in the reparation of their household napery.] + + +Darning-Stitches + +The stitches exemplifying the mode of darning damask, cambric, or linen +had usually a sampler entirely devoted to them, and at one period--the end +of the eighteenth century--it seems to have been a fairly general custom +that a girl should work one as a companion to the ordinary sampler of +lettering and patterns. The specimen darns on such a sampler are, as a +rule, arranged in squares or crosses round some centre device, a bouquet +or basket of flowers for instance, or it may be merely the initials of the +worker in a shield. The two samplers (Fig. 76 and Plate XXIV.) are typical +examples of their kind, although perhaps the ornamental parts of the +designs are a little more fanciful than in the majority of those met with. + +[Illustration: FIG. 75.--BACK-STITCH: ENLARGEMENT OF PORTION OF SAMPLER IN +FIG. 5. 17TH CENTURY. TWICE ACTUAL SIZE.] + +The best worked--not necessarily the most elaborately embellished--of this +particular class of sampler has small pieces of the material actually cut +out and the holes filled up with darning, but in inferior ones the stuff +is left untouched, and the darn is simply worked on the linen, tammy +cloth, or tiffany itself. This is a very much easier method and the +appearance is better; but the darns so made are, after all, but imitations +of the real thing. For the damask darns fine silk of two colours is +invariably used, and in the properly worked examples both sides are alike, +save, of course, for the reversal of the damask effect, as in woven +damask. + +The centre designs in the two samplers illustrated are worked in fine +darning-stitches of divers kinds, outlined with chain and stem stitches. +Here and there a few other stitches are introduced, as in the stem of the +rose in Fig. 76, where French knots are used to produce the mossy +appearance. The centre basket in this sampler is worked in lines of +chain-stitching crossing each other lattice fashion. Both the samplers +have the initials of their workers, and in that shown in Fig. 76 the date +(1802) also, neatly darned into one of the crosses formed by the damask +patterns. + +Darning-samplers are usually square, or nearly square, in shape, and are +simply finished with a single line of hem-stitching at the edge, but some +of the older ones are ornamented with a broader band of drawn-work as +border; while a few have examples of drawn-work, alternating with squares +and crosses of darning, in the body of the sampler. A small section of +such a sampler, dated 1785, is illustrated on an enlarged scale in Fig. +77. It has a series of small conventional leaf patterns worked in single +drawn-work, and edged with a scalloping worked in chain-stitch with green +silk. The ground of this particular sampler is thin linen, but the +muslin-like stuff known as tiffany is that used for the foundation of nine +darning-samplers out of ten. + + +Tent and Cross Stitches + +Neither tent-stitch nor tapestry-stitch appears to have been largely +introduced in sampler-embroidery at any period; still, portions of a +few specimens worked during the early and middle years of the eighteenth +century are executed in one or other of these stitches. Tent-stitch, for +instance, plays an important part in the wreath border of Fig. 8. The +beautifully shaded leaves are all worked in this way, as are many of the +flowers, other varieties of grounding or cushion-stitches being used for +the rest of the border. The Commandments, which the wreath enframes, are +worked in cross-stitch. This last-named stitch in its earliest form is +worked over a single thread, and produces a close and solid effect when +closely massed, or, as may be seen in many sampler maps, very fine lines +when worked in single rows. Ordinary cross-stitch taken over two threads +is, of course, the familiar stitch in which nineteenth-century samplers +are entirely worked, whence arises its second name of sampler-stitch. + +[Illustration: FIG. 76.--DARNING SAMPLER. SIGNED M. M., T. B., J. F. DATED +1802. _The late Mrs Head._] + +[Illustration: FIG. 77.--ENLARGED PORTION OF A DARNING SAMPLER. DATED +1785.] + +A pretty and--in sampler embroidery--uncommon stitch is that in which the +crowned lions in the samplers of Mary and Lydia Johnson (Figs. 35 and 36) +are worked. This stitch is formed of two cross-stitches superimposed +diagonally, and since its revival in the Berlin wool era has been known by +the names of star-stitch and leviathan-stitch. + + +Various Stitches + +Besides the stitches already enumerated and described, sundry and divers +others are found on samplers of various periods. Satin-stitch, for +instance, is used for borders and other parts of designs, as well as for +alphabets. Long-and-short stitch, frequently very irregularly executed, +seems to have been popular for the embroidery of the wreaths and garlands +that make gay many of the later eighteenth-century samplers. Stem-stitch, +save for such minor details as flower-stalks and tendrils, is not often +seen; but the wreath-borders of a limited number of eighteenth-century +samplers are done entirely in this stitch, worked in lines round and +round, or up and down, each leaf and petal until the whole is filled in. +Stem-stitch, it should be explained, is, to all intents and purposes, the +same as "outline" or "crewel" stitch. The latter name, however, is +likewise applied to long-and-short or plumage stitch by some writers on +embroidery. + +Laid-stitches may also be included in the list of stitches occurring +occasionally in samplers, although it is rarely met with in its more +elaborate forms. A sampler dated 1808 has two baskets (of flowers) worked +in long laid-stitches of brown silk couched with yellow silk, the effect +of wicker-work being produced with some success by this plan, and similar +unambitious examples appear in some samplers of rather earlier date. + +The portion of a sampler shown in Fig. 2 is interesting by reason of the +fact that it is worked in knots, a form of stitchery comparatively rare, +save in those unclassifiable pieces of embroidery which are neither +pictures nor samplers, but possess some of the features of both. + + +Materials + +Linen, bleached or unbleached, but, of course, always hand-woven, is the +foundation material of the early samplers. It varies greatly in texture, +from a coarse, canvas-like kind to a fine and closely woven sort of about +the same stoutness as good modern pillow-case linen. The stitchery of +these oldest samplers is executed in linen thread or a somewhat loosely +twisted silk, often scarcely coarser than our nineteenth-century "machine +silk," although, on the other hand, a very thick and irregularly spun type +is occasionally seen. + +About 1725 linen of a peculiar yellow colour and rather harsh texture came +into vogue; but this went out of fashion in a few years, and towards the +end of the eighteenth century the strong and durable linen was almost +entirely superseded by an ugly and moth-attracting stuff called +indifferently tammy, tammy cloth, bolting cloth, and, when woven in a +specially narrow width, sampler canvas. The stitchery on samplers of this +date is almost invariably executed with silk, although in a few of the +coarser ones fine untwisted crewel is substituted. Tiffany, the thin, +muslin-like material mentioned in connection with darning-samplers, was at +this period used also for small delicately wrought samplers of the +ordinary type. + +Early in the nineteenth century very coarsely woven linen and linen canvas +came into fashion again, and for some time were nearly as popular as the +woollen tammy; while, about 1820, twisted crewels of the crudest dyes +replaced in a great measure the soft toned silks. Next followed the +introduction of cotton canvas and Berlin wool, and with them vanished the +last remaining vestige of the exquisite stitchery and well-balanced +designs of earlier generations, and the sampler, save in a most degraded +form, ceased to exist. + + + + +Index + + + Abraham on sampler, 58. Fig. 16 + + Acorn, 58, 68, 109. Plate III. Fig. 16 + + Adam and Eve on samplers, 21, 62, 109; + on embroideries, 128 + + Africa, map of, 97. Fig 41 + + Age of sampler, how to estimate, 15 + + Age of sampler workers, 80 + + Agur's prayer. Plate XI. + + Alphabets on samplers, 19, 22, 84; + stitches, 164 + + America, samplers from, 24, 97 (Plate XIII., Figs. 42-51); + map of, 92. Fig. 39 + + Anchors, Fig. 23 + + Animals on samplers, 65 + + Ascension Day samplers, 38 + + + Background-stitches, 144 + + Back-stitches, 109, 163. Plates III. and VII. Fig. 75 + + Bead embroidery, 158 (Plate XXII.); + sampler, Fig. 53 + + Belief, the, 28 + + Belgian samplers, 110 + + Biblical subjects in tapestry embroideries, 128 + + Bird's-eye-stitch, 164 + + Borders to samplers, 75 + + Boston, U.S.A., samplers from, 89. Fig. 50 + + Boxers, 61. Plate III. Fig. 18 + + Boys, samplers by, 84. Fig 34 + + Brontës, samplers by, 28. Figs. 10, 11, 12 + + Brooklyn, U.S.A., sampler from, 89. Fig. 47 + + Buttonhole-stitch, 146 + + + Calcutta, samplers from, 35. Fig. 3 + + Carnation, see "Pink" + + Caterpillar, 140 + + Charles I., Plates XVI. and XVIII. + + Charles II., Plate XXI. + + Children, samplers by, 80 + + Christening samplers, 109 + + Christmas samplers, 38 + + Colouring of samplers, 52 + + Commandments, the, 27. Fig. 9 + + Corn blue-bottle, 78 + + Coronet, see "Crowns" + + Costume on tapestry embroideries, 132 + + Crewel-stitch, 170 + + Cross-stitch, 109, 166 + + Crowns on samplers, 68. Figs. 20-22 + + Crucifixion on samplers, 108, 109 + + Cupids on samplers, Fig. 23 + + Cushion-stitch, 144. Fig. 62 + + Cut and drawn work stitches, 161. Figs. 4, 7, 16, 24, 42, 72, 73 + + + Darned samplers, Fig. 76. Plate XXIV. + + Darning-stitches, 110, 165. Plate XXIV. Figs. 76, 77 + + David and Abigail, 128, 130; + and Goliath, 130 + + Deer, see "Stags" + + Design on samplers, 51 + + Dogs on samplers, Fig. 17. Plate III. + + Drawn-work, 58, 135. Fig. 16 + + Dress, value of tapestry embroideries as patterns of, 132 + + Dutch samplers, 110 + + + Earliest samplers, 10, 13, 16 + + Easter samplers, 36 + + Embroiderers' Company, 127 + + Embroideries in the manner of tapestry pictures, 123; + subjects of, 127; + as mirrors of fashion, 132 + + England, maps of, 94. Fig. 40. + + Esther and Ahasuerus, 128, 130. Plate XVIII. + + Evolution of samplers, 12, 15 + + Eyelet-stitch, 146. Fig. 63 + + + Fig on samplers, 68. Plate III. + + Fine Art Society's Exhibition of samplers, 4, 28, 66, 89, 119; + of embroideries, 123 + + Fleur de Lys on samplers, 21 + + Florentine-stitch, 145 + + Flowers on samplers, 65; + on tapestry embroideries, 139 + + Foreign flavour in embroideries, 131 + + Foreign samplers, 104 + + Fountains on tapestry embroideries, 136 + + French knot-stitches, 151. Figs. 21 and 67 + + French samplers, 111 + + + Gardening, illustrations of, on tapestry embroideries, 135 + + German samplers, 108 + + Glove, embroidered. Fig. 55 + + Gobelin-stitch, 145 + + Gold and silver passing, 154 + + Grubs on tapestry embroideries, 140 + + + Hagar and Ishmael, 129. Plate XV. + + Hearts on samplers, 75. Figs. 21-23 + + Hollie point lace cap, Fig. 61; + stitch, 157 + + Honeysuckle on samplers, 66, 79. Fig. 30 + + Horticulture, see "Gardening" + + House on samplers, 118 (Figs. 14, 46, 48); + on tapestry embroidery, 135. Fig. 56 + + Human figure, 57 + + Hungary-stitch, 145 + + + Implements used in stitchery, 159. Fig. 71 + + Indian samplers, 113. Figs. 3 and 52 + + Inscriptions on samplers, 23, 91 + + Italian samplers, 111 + + + Judgment of Paris, 128. Fig. 56 + + + Knot-stitches, 109, 151. Figs. 21 and 67 + + + Lace-stitches, 154. Figs. 61, 68-70 + + Laid-stitch, 146 + + Last of the samplers, 117 + + Lettering on samplers, 22 + + Leviathan-stitch, 169 + + Life and death, inscriptions referring to, 41 + + Lion on sampler, 65. Fig. 44 + + Literature sampler, 115 + + Little Gidding, nuns, 131, 149 + + Long-and-short-stitch, 170 + + Looped-stitches, 152 + + Lord's Prayer, the, 27 + + + Maidstone Museum, tapestry picture. Plate I. + + Map samplers, 92. Figs. 39-41 + + Materials on which samplers were worked, 171 + + Mermaid on sampler, Fig. 16 + + Metal thread, 153 + + Milton, mention of sampler by, 14 + + Mitford, Miss, on samplers, 118 + + Mortlake tapestries, 100 + + Moses in the bullrushes, 129 + + Mustard or canary-coloured canvas, 55 + + + + National events, samplers as records of, 90 + + Need of samplers, 11 + + Needle's excellency, the, 115, 116, 143 + + Numerals on samplers, 22 + + + Oak, see "Acorn" + + Origin of samplers, place of, 88 + + Ornament, sampler, 51 + + Ornamentation, earliest date of various forms of, 21 + + Orpheus, 128 + + + Parents and preceptors, duties to, 46 + + Passing, 154 + + Passion Week samplers, 38 + + Patternes of cut workes, 115 + + Peacocks' feathers, use of, 154 + + Pearls, seed, on tapestry embroideries, 133--_note_ + + Pears, 109 + + Pineapple on samplers, 68 + + Pink on samplers, 66, 78, 109. Plates III., IV., VI. Fig. 28 + + Place of origin of samplers, 88 + + Plush-stitch, 153. Plate XVIII. + + Portuguese samplers, 112 + + Poverty, inscriptions concerning, 48 + + Prayers on samplers, 39 + + Preceptors, duties to, 46 + + Purl, 153. Plate XXIII. + + + Quaint inscriptions, 49 + + + Religious festivals, verses commemorating, 36 + + Rhymes on samplers, see "Verses" + + Royal personages on tapestry embroideries, 133 + + Royal school of art needlework, 120 + + Rose on samplers, 58, 66, 109 (Figs. 7, 16, Plate VI.); + on tapestry embroideries, 113 + + Ruskin, John, on needlework in museums, 2; + on samplers, 3; + sampler by grandmother of, 3, and Plate X. + + Samplers. Parts I. and III. (Sec. II.) + + Satin-stitch, 122, 141, 146 + + Scottish samplers, 71, 84, 89. Figs. 21, 34 + + Sex of sampler workers, 80 + + Shakespeare, mention of sampler by, 13 + + Sidney, Sir P., mention of sampler by, 14 + + Signatures on samplers, 23 + + Size of samplers, 84 + + Smoke (chimney) on embroideries, 135. Fig. 57 + + Spanish samplers, 112 + + _Spectator_ on decay of needlework, 117 + + Spies to Canaan, 21 + + Split-stitch, 150. Figs. 65, 66 + + Stag on samplers, 21, 65, 80. Figs. 6, 17. Plates III., VIII. + + Star-stitch, 169. Figs. 35, 36 + + Stem-stitch, 150 + + Stitchery of tapestry pictures, 143; + of samplers, 161 + + Stitches, background, 144; + cushion, 144; + tent, 144; + Gobelin, 145; + upright, 145; + Florentine, 145; + Hungary, 145; + satin, 146; + open, 146; + buttonhole, 146; + eyelet, 149 (Fig. 63); + split, 152 (Figs. 65, 66); + stem, 150; + knot, 151; + looped, 152; + plush, 153; + purl, 153; + passing, 154; + lace, sampler stitches, 154; + hollie point, 157 (Fig. 61); + cut and drawn-work, 161; + back-stitch, 163 (Fig. 75); + alphabet-stitch, 164; + darning-stitch, 165 (Plate XXIV. and Figs. 8, 76); + tent and cross-stitch, 166; + various, 170 + + Strawberry on samplers, 66. Fig. 31. Plate XIII. + + Stump embroidery, 149 + + Susannah and the elders, 128, 130, 131. Plate XIV. + + Swiss samplers, 111 + + + Talc, 154. Plate XIV. + + Tammy cloth, 171 + + Tapestry, history of, 125; + stitch, 145 + + Tapestry pictures--see embroideries in the manner of + + Tent-stitch, 166 + + Thistle on sampler, 71. Fig. 21 + + Tracing, groundwork, 158. Fig. 70 + + Tree of knowledge on samplers, 18_n_, 62_n_, 109. Figs. 17, 18 + + Tulip on samplers, 78. Figs. 27, 59 + + + Upright-stitch, 145 + + + Verses on samplers, 27, 36-51 + + Vice, inscription concerning, 48 + + Victoria and Albert Museum, samplers in, 11, 21, 58. Fig. 7 + + Virtue, inscription concerning, 48 + + + Wealth, inscription concerning, 48 + + +_Printed at_ THE DARIEN PRESS, _Edinburgh_ + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] The picture also shows that the principal decorations of the walls of +the schoolroom were framed examples of attainments with the needle. + +[2] In the original all the small pieces of work in the upper corner near +the initials are varieties of gold thread design, and almost all the grey +colour throughout, in the reproduction, is silver thread. + +[3] It was claimed by its late owner, Mrs Egerton Baines, that almost +every line of this sampler contains Royalist emblems. For instance, the +angel in the upper part is supposed to be Margaret of Scotland wearing the +Yorkist badge as a part of her chatelaine; beside her is the Tree of Life, +on either side of which are Lancastrian S's, the whole row being +symbolical of the descent of the Stuarts from Margaret of Scotland, +daughter of Henry VII. The next row of ornament is also the Tree of Life, +represented by a vine springing from an acorn, by tradition a symbolical +badge of Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I. The next two rows are made up +of roses, acorns, and Stuart S's, which S's again appear in the line +beneath, linked with the Tree of Life. We refer elsewhere (p. 62) to the +figures in the bottom row (the whole of the sampler is not shown here), +and these are supposed to be Oliver Cromwell as a tailed devil. The +sampler is neither signed nor dated, but it clearly belongs to the first +half of the seventeenth century. The silks employed are almost exclusively +pink, green, and blue, and the work is of the open character found in that +illustrated in Plate III. + +[4] In one by Hannah Lanting, dated 1691, the orthography is "with my +nedel I rout the same," and it adds, "and Juda Hayle is my Dame." + +[5] The lower portion of Fig. 18 opposite introduces us to an early and +crude representation of Adam and Eve and the serpent, and to the bird and +fountain, and flower in vase, forms of decoration which became at a later +date so very common. The name of the maker has been obliterated owing to +dirt getting through a broken glass, but the date is 1742. + +[6] This sampler is interesting owing to its drawn-work figures, which are +directly copied from two effigies of the reign of James I., and may stand +for that Monarch and his Queen. This portion of the sampler might readily +be mistaken for that date were it not that it bears on the bar which +divides the figures the letters S.W., 1700. The border at the side of the +figures is in red silk, that at the top and the alphabet are in the motley +array of colours to which we are accustomed in specimens of this date. + +[7] A map of Europe, formerly in the author's possession, had the degrees +marked as so many minutes or hours east or west of Clapton! + +[8] "Samplers," by Alice Morse Earle. + +[9] It first appeared in the _Lady's Magazine_, 1819, and in the first +collected edition, 1824, Vol. I. pp. 67, 68; also in Bohn's Classics, +1852, pp. 138, 139. + +[10] These latter, with their figures standing out in relief, could never +have been used for cushions, and can only have been employed as pictures. + +[11] The difficulty of assigning a close date to tapestry embroideries is +a considerable one, for dress is practically the only guide, and this is +by no means a reliable one, for a design may well have been taken from a +piece dated half a century previously, as, for instance, when the marriage +of Charles I. is portrayed on an embroidery bearing date 1649, the year of +his death. Those, therefore, which have a genuine date have this value, +that they can only represent a phase of art or a subject coeval with, or +precedent to, that date. Hence the importance of the pieces illustrated in +Fig. 60 and in Fig. 68, dated six years later. + +[12] Mr Davenport considers that this rounded, padded work is a caricature +of the raised embroidery of the _opus Anglicanum_, and that the earliest +specimens of it are to be found at Coire, Zurich, and Munich. + +[13] The fondness for decking the dress with pearls is quaintly portrayed +in these pictures, where they are imitated by seed pearls. As to these +there is an interesting extract extant, from the inventory of St James's +House, nigh Westminster, in 1549, wherein among the items is one of "a +table [or picture] whereon is a man holding a sword in one hand and a +sceptre in the other, of needlework, prettily garnished with seed pearls." + +[14] A very good example of a sampler in drawn-work, in which the floral +form of decoration is entirely absent, save in the sixth row (the pinks), +which is in green silk, the rest being in white. That the sampler was +intended as a pattern is evident from some of the rows being unfinished. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41717 *** |