Fine and Rare Needlework Sampler, Elizabeth Stine (b. 1784), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Dated 1793

Worked in silk and twisted silk threads with crinkled silk floss on linen, in quilled silk ribbon with corner rosettes; satin, queen, tent, outline and cross-stitches. Inscribed: Elizabeth Stine Her Work Made In The [number removed]th/Year of Her Age July 20th, 1793. Attributed to Mary Zeller's School. 22 by 18 inches. (28 threads to the inch).

See catalogue note at sothebys.com

James and Nancy Glazer, Philadelphia, May, 1983

Somewhat darkened and with fading to ribbon and silk.
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. 50-52, fig. 13

The earliest Philadelphia samplers appear to have been stitched during the second decade of the eighteenth century, although there can be little doubt that some schoolmistresses emphasized ornamental embroidery as an important branch of the curriculum before that time. Records indicate that schools for girls had opened in Philadelphia by the end of the seventeenth century, when William Penn wrote his wife Gulielma in 1682, "for there [sic] learning be liberal; spare no cost; for by such parsimony all is lost that is sav'd; but let it be useful knowledge such as is consistent with truth & godliness not cherishing a vain conversation or Idle mind, but ingenuity mix'd with industry is good for the body and mind too."¹ For the ingenious and industrious colonial girl, thread and needle were common domestic tools.  Philadelphia was settled by Quakers as early as 1683 and chartered as a city in 1701. The minutes of the Philadelphia Monthly Meeting of 1702 included the selection of the first recorded Quaker schoolmistress in the city; Olive Songhurst.² In May 1723, an advertisement in the American Weekly Mercury announced that a Mrs. Rodes would teach flourishing on muslin in "the most expeditious way."³ It is, therefore, hardly a surprise to find diligent  schoolmistresses were established in the city by 1727, the year  Ann Marsh, age nine, worked her borderless, horizontal band  sampler, inscribed with her teacher's name, Mary Ann Stanton.⁴  She eventually became a schoolmistress herself and was responsible  for the education of the daughters of many prominent  Philadelphians.  Ann's embroidery is but one of a number of closely related samplers found to have originated in Philadelphia. These samplers were thought to represent the earliest documented group of needlework in this country, but the recent appearance of a narrowly bordered sampler worked by Anne Chase of Rhode Island bears the date 1721 and conforms to a newly recognized Newport group of sampler embroideries.⁵ Schools for Philadelphia girls increased notably after the middle of the century, culminating in the establishment of the Female Academy, a chartered institution, in 1792. By 1796, Anne Parrish, a benevolent Quaker, had opened Aimwell School for poor girls in Pewter Platter Alley, instructing her fifty pupils in ”spelling, reading, writing, arithmetic, and sewing."⁶ The exquisite sampler worked by Elizabeth Stine represents a superb example of eighteenth-century Philadelphia sampler embroidery.  It is characterized by the distinctively deep, pyramid-shaped lawn scattered with animals and figures in fashionable costumes. Part of the sky has been worked into a lavish basket of fruit, with grapevines swirling into the upper corners. A shaggy goat, a cow, a wellhouse with a yellow silk bucket, and a flock of insects also enter into the scene. A reclining stag-which first appeared on an engraving worked by Rosina Helena Furst of Nuremburg, Germany, in 1666⁷-has been prominently displayed.  Enclosed within an undulating border on three sides of the rectangle, the sampler is surrounded by an edge of tightly quilled silk ribbon, each corner further embellished with rosettes of scarlet and cream.  By far the most mystifying and intriguing feature of these distinctive Philadelphia samplers is the unusual building depicted on a rise of green satin and tent-stitched lawn. Embellished with towers, spires, and weathervanes, this rust- and black-checkered castle is difficult to identify. In his Guide to the Collection of Samplers and Embroideries at the National Museum of Wales, F. G. Payne suggests that a similar, but more exaggerated, edifice of this style that is found on a nineteenth-century Welsh sampler may to some degree be compared with "such structures as Henry VIII's Palace of Nonsuch, which provided a favorite architectural motif for embroideries of an earlier period."⁸ Today those visiting Hampton Court Palace in England might notice a resemblance.  Although this group of samplers was long thought by collectors to have originated in an unidentified school located near Burlington, New Jersey,⁹ the recent appearance of a nearly identical sampler worked by Mary Snowden of Philadelphia bearing the name "M. Zeller" as instructress has allowed another piece of the sampler puzzle to fall into place. In this unexpected manner a talented schoolmistress and her school have been discovered.¹⁰ A needlework rendition of the Lamb of God, or Agnus Dei, has been identified as typical of Mary Zeller's instruction. Two of  these ancient motifs are located at the base of the lawn on the  sampler worked by Elizabeth Stine, and two are worked into the  grassy slope of Mary Snowden's embroidery.^l1  Since Elizabeth Stine removed the threads giving her age, genealogical  identification is difficult. The established custom of sending country girls to be educated in Philadelphia may have applied to Elizabeth, daughter of Elizabeth and Philip Stine of Bedminster Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Born February 24, 1784, she would have worked this elegant sampler in her tenth year, that is, when she was nine. The Philadelphia directory for 1797 indicates that the widow of Philip Stine was living at 245 High Street. ¹² Just a few doors away, Mary Zeller,”teacheress," could be found at 119 and 121 North Third Street.  Records reveal that Mary Zeller kept her school for girls for at least a twenty-year span, from 1789 to 1808, instructing Philadelphia girls in the gentle art of ornamental needlework.¹³   

 

1. Richard S. Dunn and Mary Maples Dunn, eds., the Papers o/William Penn, vol. 2 (Philadelphia, PA:  University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982), 269-277.  

2. Woody, History o/Women's Education, vol. 1: 199.  

3. Ibid., 223.  

4. The Marsh sampler is in a private collection; see  Betry Ring, "Samplers and Pictorial Needlework at  the Chester County Historical Society," Antiques  (December 1984): 1423.  

5. The location of Ann Chase's sampler is unknown; see ibid. See also Sotheby's, 5736, June 23, 1988, lot 320.  

6. Woody, History o/Women's Education, vol. 1: 202, 223,230,337.  

7. Krueger, Gallery 0/ American Samplers, 18.  

8. F. G. Payne, Guide to the Collection 0/ Samplers and Embroideries (Cardiff, Wales: National Museum of Wales and Press Board of the University of Wales, 1939),32.  

9. The location of Mary Snowden's sampler is unknown;  see Bolton and Coe, American Samplers,  opp.260.  

10. Sotheby's, New York, catalogue, American Folk Art, Furniture and Related Decorative Arts, 5156, January 27, 1984, lot 494. See also Ring, American Needlework Treasures, 40.  

11. Ring, American Needlework Treasures, 40.  

12. Rev. William John Hinke, A History 0/ the Tothickon  Union Church, Bedminster Township, Bucks County,  Pennsylvania (Meadville, P A, 1925), 380.  

13. The Philadelphia City Directory, 1797, lists a Jacob Zeller, bookbinder, at 119 and 121 North Third Street. He may have been Mary Zeller's husband.  The Federal Census, Philadelphia, 1790, however, lists Mary Zeller as "Head of the Family" of three  females, some of whom may have been boarding  students registered in her house. In the City Directory of 1807, Mary Zeller, teacheress, is registered at 119 North Third Street; and Jacob, bookbinder, at  121.