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Stephen & Carol Huber: 17th - 19th Century Needlework


antique needlework sampler Huber 256

Lot Number: 256 (description taken from Sotheby's catalogue)

RARE NEEDLEWORK SAMPLER, ELIZABETH BROWN, PROBABLY MASSACHUSETTS, DATED 1834

Worked in twisted silk threads and crinkled silk floss on linen in split, tent, chain, queen, satin and cross-stitches. Inscribed: Adieu my native Land adieu Elizabeth Brown's Work 1834. 17 3/4  by 21 inches. (30 threads to the inch).

Sothby's estimate: $12,500 - $18,750 (with 25% buyer's premium added)

$6,500 (SPECIAL SALES PRICE - no buyers premium)

(To purchase call 860-388-6809)


Catalogue Notes:
Although Elizabeth Brown's schoolmistress remains anonymous, this sampler reveals a wealth of information about her. This talented teacher's venturesome design is delightfully colorful. The embroidery is framed by a bold, geometric border worked in vines, leafy stems, and large, open-faced flowers. Visually dramatic, this strong design element, probably indicative of her teaching approach, establishes the format. It presents a natural setting for the wedge-shaped platform at the center of the bottom that embraces a decorative basket of oversized roses. This schoolmistress imaginatively inserted trees to fill the panels at each side, one a tree of ripening apples, the other delicately entwined with a vine of faded yellow silk grapes. Strawberry buds and sprightly birds embellish the border across the bottom. Elizabeth's verse is enclosed within a dainty cartouche of flowered sprigs. To either side, handled urns – resembling blue-and-white patterned porcelain – have been embroidered. The stitches have been most skillfully executed. As Elizabeth Brown's sampler is reminiscent of a group of large, floral-bordered samplers worked in northeastern Massachusetts near Newburyport, she may have attended an unidentified school for girls in that vicinity.

PROVENANCE:
Purchased February, 1990
Exhibited and Literature: LACMA, pp. 70-71, fig. 26


STEPHEN & CAROL HUBER
(860) 388-6809
Hubers@AntiqueSamplers.com

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