Property from the Collection of Leslie and Peter Warwick, Middletown, New Jersey
A Needlework Sampler, Worked by Elizabeth Shillaber, Danvers, Massachusetts, 1776
No reserve
Lot Closed
January 25, 08:54 PM GMT
Estimate
5,000 - 8,000 USD
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Read more.Lot Details
Description
silk threads on linen
dated 1776
height 16 in. by width 12 ½ in.
worked in cross stitches, chain stitches, satin stitches, and french knots, with the top register inscribed with the alphabet in capital letters, followed by lower case letters, numbers 1 through 10 and then a repeat of the alphabet in capital letters A through L, above the middle register with a verse inscribed Still On My Heart May Jesus Shine/ With Beams Of Light And Love Devine/ Quickened By Him My Soul Shall Live/ And Cheared By Him Shall Grow And Thrive/ Elizabeth Shillaber Her Sampler Aged 13 1776/ When This You See Remember Me above the lower register depicting a lady and gentleman in a flowering landscape with birds and sheep.
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Skinner Inc., Boston, Massachusetts, June 16, 1990, sale 1332, lot 81;
David A. Schorsch, Greenwich, Connecticut;
Bill and Joyce Subjack, South Amboy, New Jersey, Neverbird Antiques.
Elizabeth "Betsey" Shillaber (1763-1831) was the third child of Robert Shillaber (1736-1808) and Elizabeth Proctor (1735-1804). She was born in Danvers, Massachusetts, originally Salem Village, which changed its name in 1751 to escape the notoriety of the 1692 Salem Witch trial hangings. Nearly all the witches hailed from Salem Village although the trials were held in Salem.
The prime witch in the witch trials was John Proctor (1631-1692), Elizabeth's maternal great-great-grandfather who was pressed to death and is the main character in Arthur Miller's play, "The Crucible." John Proctor married three times and had eighteen children. His first wife, Martha Giddens, died in childbirth after her fourth child in 1659. He married his second wife, Elizabeth Thorndike, daughter of John Thorndike, founder of Ipswich Massachusetts, in 1662. They had seven children together and died after giving birth to her seventh child, Thorndike Proctor (1672-1758), Betsey Schrillaber's great-grandfather. After his father was executed in 1692, Thorndike married Hannah Felton in 1697, the widow of Samuel Endicott, the grandson of John Endicott, the first Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, and the daughter of Nathaniel Felton and Mary Skelton. Their son, Thorndike Proctor (1700-1774) married Abigail Wilson (1705-1784), and their daughter, Elizabeth Proctor (1737-1824), was Betsey Shrillaber's mother. Elizabeth Proctor married Betsey's father, Captain Robert Shillaber (1736-1808), in 1758 and he was a wealthy merchant, importer, and a mill owner in Salem, who exported furniture made by Nathaniel Gould.
Elizabeth "Betsey" Shrillaber wrought this needlework sampler in 1776 when she was thirteen-years-old and went on to marry David Daniels (1757-1827) in 1786. They had eight children between 1788 and 1806. There are only two other known samplers from this school, all made by first cousins in 1776. The other two samplers were made by Mary Shillaber (1762-1796) and Lucy Low (1764-1842) which is in the American Folk Art Museum, accession number 2013.1.46.
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