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Maker/s

Abbott, Marie (maker)

Collection

J.W.L. Glaisher

Category

embroidery

Name

sampler

Description

Linen band sampler embroidered with polychrome wools, inscribed at the top with an alphabet, the name "MArie Ab/bott" and the words 'Have god in minde'

Linen band sampler embroidered with polychrome wools in double running, cross, long-armed cross, Montenegrin cross, Algerian eye, and buttonhole stitch with some speckling and detached needlepoint filling stitches. All the edges of the sampler are hemmed. The sampler has sixteen horizontal bands with much of the left side used for small all-over designs, three vertically worked border patterns, and two short examples of wider horizontal repeating border designs. The sixteen horizontal bands include repeating floral border patterns, one with pineapple motifs, another with 'boxers' and at the top, an alphabet and an inscription: 'HAvE GOD in minDE mARIE aBBOTT' with the final 'bott' worked in the band above

Production Notes

Similar moral or religious phrases can be found on domestic pottery of the period and reflect the common preoccupation with both contemporary religious upheavals and the unpredictability of life and death.

Although the embroidery typifies that of seventeenth-century samplers, the use of wool rather than silk is much less usual. Wool being cheaper and less robust than silk, it seems likely that a child's first attempt at stitching were in wool, but as this sampler shows work of a very high standard this was probably not the case for this particular piece.

Production Place

England (country)

English (nationality)

Technique Description

Linen band sampler embroidered with polychrome wools in double running, cross, long-armed cross, Montenegrin cross, Algerian eye, and buttonhole stitch with some speckling and detached filing stitches. All the edges of the sampler are hemmed.

Dimensions

length: 74 cm
width: 21 cm
length: 30.1/4 in
width: 8.1/2 in

Period

mid to late 17th Century

Date

circa 1650 to 1701

Provenance

bequeathed: Glaisher, J.W.L., Dr 1928-12-07 (Filtered for: Applied Arts collection)

Dr J.W.L. Glaisher Bequest

Documentation

1. Humphrey, Carol (1984) English Samplers at the Fitzwilliam, Cambridge (Cambs.): The Fitzwilliam Museum [page: 12]
   [comments: Publ. Pl. 14, no. 33]
2. Humphrey, Carol (1997) Fitzwilliam Museum Handbooks, Samplers, Cambridge (Cambs.): Cambridge University Press [page: 20]
   [comments: Publ. No. 5]

Other Notes

Accession Number

T.66-1928 (Applied Arts)
(Reference Number: 110612; Input Date: 2004-11-05 / Last Edit: 2009-11-17)