Rare Needlework Sampler, Rebeccah Thomas (b. 1803), Probably Jaffrey, New Hampshire, 1807 (1817)

Worked with twisted silk threads, crinkled silk floss, and paint on fine linen(?) or tiffany in satin, padded satin, herringbone, outline, tent and cross-stitches with French knot. Inscribed: Rebeccah Thomas/s/ Born August 4th 1803 Now in the bloom of life/Would I desire to seek and find/That Pearl of greatest Price/Which is my Jesus Christ Wrought 1817. 13 1/2  by 15 1/4  inches. (60 threads to the inch).

A sale at Sotheby's, sale number 4938, lot 600, October, 1982

Somewhat darkened. With some fading but sound. New glass.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Exhibited and Literature: LACMA, pp. 75-76, fig. 29

The superb pictorial sampler worked by Rebeccah Thomas of Surry, New Hampshire, has been inscribed with the questionable date of 1807. This pale inscription, undoubtedly added at a later time, would mean that Rebeccah, born 1803, was an accomplished embroiderer by the age of four. Comparison with related samplers from this distinguished school, however, suggests a more reasonable date of about 1817, when Rebeccah was in her teens, or as she inscribes in her verse, "in the bloom of life." The format of her sampler is extremely sophisticated. The variety of stitches and the use of thickly sewn, crinkled silk threads, alternating with a thinner silk twist, give an unusual and interesting depth to the picture. Placement of the hollows in the hills, and the rows of trees, give a sense of true perspective, often ignored in schoolgirl embroideries. Although the design was probably copied from a print or engraving, this unidentified teacher has been both inventive and skillful in transposing the picture from paper to linen and thread. A woman in a cream-colored gown is shown wearing a silvery blue stole draped around her shoulders and a splendid high crowned hat. Her face, hair, and décolletage have been expertly painted directly on the linen-the schoolmistress's task. She is holding a looped garland of twisted flowers and leaves, which in color and form serves as a device to lead the viewer's eye from the tall shade tree, across the costumed figure, and directly into the pastoral landscape. A wavy border of naturalistic flowers and leaves circles the meadow, which has been outlined with a thin, silvery, sawtoothed border. This elegant pictorial sampler is one of at least four samplers identified as having been worked in southern New Hampshire between 1817 and 1821. Laura Bowker, at the age of eleven, stitched an identical sampler in 1817, adorned with appliqued, kidskin lambs and a woman with her face drawn on paper and pasted to the fabric.¹ Betsey Fay, at nineteen years, worked a similar sampler in 1818.² Nancy S. Perkins, aged fourteen, worked an exact duplicate, with a paper lady and prick worked, paper sheep on linen canvas in 1821.³ These three samplermakers lived in Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire. Only Rebeccah came from Surry. There is increasing circumstantial evidence to attribute their needlework instruction to a teacher keeping school in Fitzwilliam, but the town of Jaffrey is slowly gaining recognition, as it was once a thriving center for the decorative arts. It was in Jaffrey, for example, that Hannah Davis designed her beautiful wood and paper-covered bandboxes.⁴ Samplers inscribed with the name of the town have begun to surface-such as the 1829 mourning sampler worked by Mary J. Perkins⁵-indicating an unusual number of schools for girls may have existed there during the second and third decades of the nineteenth century. Other sampler embroideries displaying similar characteristics are believed to have originated in these various academies (figs. 32, 33).⁶ The federal-style reverse-painted black glass matting with fine gilt lines and corner star motifs would have been more appropriate for a silk-on-silk embroidery than it is for Rebeccah's sampler. However, the sampler has been untouched since it was placed in the frame and backed with a New York American and Journal dated October 10, 1904. Rebeccah Thomas, the daughter of Francis and Elizabeth Gregg, was the sixth of thirteen children. She was born in Ringe, New Hampshire, August 4, 1803.⁷ In 1827, Rebeccah married Seth Carpenter (1802-1843), a farmer. They were parents of three children.⁸ After the death of her husband, she married William J. Griswold, an Englishman living in Surry, New Hampshire. In 1846, Griswold, involved in a fight, was found guilty of assault, fined two thousand dollars, and spent six months in jail. Records reveal he abandoned Rebeccah and by 1850 she was living in Westminster, Vermont, near two of her married children.⁹ In 1877, Rebecca married David H. Maxfield; she was seventy-four years of age. She died after 1882 in Chester, Vermont. ¹⁰ 

 

1. The location of the Bowker sampler is unknown; see Bolton and Coe, American Samplers, 130, opp. 146. 

2. The Fay sampler is in a private collection; see Sotheby's, New York, catalogue, Important Frakturs, Embroidered Pictures, Theorem Paintings, Cutwork Pictures, and Other American Folk Art:from the Collection of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbish, part 3, 3692, November 12,1974, lot 51. 

3. Nancy Perkins's sampler is in the collection of the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence; see Krueger, New England Samplers, fig. 69. 

4. Hannah Dayis (1784-1863) became famous for her decorated boxes. See Nina Fletcher Little, Neat and Tidy: Boxes and Their Contents Used in Ear~v American Households (New York, NY: Dutton, 1980), 106, 107, 109, 112. 

5. Mary Perkins's sampler is in a private collection; see Antiques (September 1982): 402, advertisement. 

6. Krueger, Nem' England Samplers, 77, 81. The towns of Jaffrey and Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire, are interwoven with the history of these exceptional samplers. I am indebted to Betty Ring for bringing the importance of the town of Jaffrey and the schoolgirl embroideries to my attention. 

7. Frank Burnside Kingsbury, History of the TO'lO)fl of Surry, Cheshire County, Nem' Hampshire (Surry, NH, 1925),599. See also rital Records of Nem' Hampshire for the Year 1803. 

8. Kingsbury, History of the Town of Surry, 325. See also Amos B. Carpenter, A Genealogical History of the Rehoboth Branch of the Carpenter Family in America (Amherst, l'vIA, 1898), 398. 

9. Kingsbury, History of the Town of Surry, 78, 119, 167. 

10. rital Records of Vermont for the Year 1882. Married in Chester by the Rev. Henry L. Sluck; recorded by the Town Clerk, Chris Robbins. David Maxfield is recorded as a married man when he died in November 1882.