Needlework Sampler, Mary Lewis, Chester County, Pennsylvania, Dated 1824

Worked with silk threads and crinkled silk floss on linen, (the whole within a quilled silk ribbon trim and corner rosettes) in satin, tent, bullion, outline and cross-stitches.  Inscribed: This work perhaps my friends may have/When I am in my silent grave/And which when e'er they chance to see/May kind remembrance picture me/While on the glowing canvas stands/The labor of my youthful hands/JC/MC/JL/PL/NL/ML/EL/JL Mary Lewis 1824. 20 1/4  by 21 1/2  inches. (26 threads to the inch). Some darkening of the linen and some loss in silk ribbon.

Joan K. Townsend, Lebanon, Ohio, July, 1982

With some fading and frayed ribbon.
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. 124-125, fig. 59

Mary Lewis, whose background has not yet been traced, worked this elaborate pictorial sampler in 1824, near Williston or Marple in Chester County, Pennsylvania, where the majority of these later, non-traditional Quaker embroideries are believed by researchers to have originated. This example represents a style of sampler embroidery that began in the area around 1820 and continued in popularity through the 1830s, a period when interest in delicate schoolgirl needlework was being supplanted by the more fashionable, heavy European woolwork.¹ The vine-and-leaf motif of Mary's wreath enclosure is barely recognizable, yet its origin lies in the earlier, more severely formal pattern appearing on samplers worked by the Tomlinson sisters, 1807 (figs. 55, 56). By 1824, when this sampler was worked, the traditional Quaker design had become more decorative and elaborate through the addition of buds, flowers, birds, and twining grape vines.² A wide, undulating flowery border trims the top and sides of the sampler, while the base has been reserved for a well-defined pastoral setting of grassy mounds with a squirrel, playful sheep, and a large bird perched upon a platform. The unusual arbor at the center bottom reveals a miniature landscape, a motif not found on other samplers of a similar style. The result of a particular schoolteacher's taste, this most recognizable design allows us to attribute at least four samplers to her school, or sphere of influence: those worked by Ann H. Vodges of Williston, 1823;³ Alice Maris of Marple (c. 1824);⁴ Hannah W. Haws (c. 1824);⁵ and the unidentified daughter of Josiah and Mary Fawkes.⁶ Mary Lewis, Hannah Haws, and Ann H. Vodges may have attended embroidery classes together, for the verses inscribed on their samplers are very similar.⁷ Upon completion, Mary's sampler was finely stitched to a flat satin ribbon, which was, in turn, entirely hidden by the further embellishment of a glossy, quilled silk ribbon with corner rosettes, now of a faded, undeterminable hue. Lavishly framed, Mary Lewis's sampler was at one time both colorful and showy. Closely related to embroideries worked under the instruction of Elizabeth Passmore, who kept a school for girls in East Goshen, this sampler format exemplifies a purely regional style.⁸ Similar samplers continued to be worked for at least two decades in the towns of Chester County, influencing schoolmistresses and classroom instruction on both sides of the Delaware River. These densely patterned, superbly executed Quaker samplers mark the high point of elegant nineteenth-century schoolgirl embroidery in America.

 

1. Ring, "Samplers and Pictorial Needlework," 1430. 

2. Swan, Plain and Fancy, 65. 

3. The Vodges sampler was in the Kapnek collection and is now in a private collection; see Krueger, Gallery of American Samplers, 62, 63, 91, 93. 

4. The Maris sampler is in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA; see Hornor, Story of Samplers, fig. 38. See also Judith K. Grow and Elizabeth C. McGrail, Creating Historic Samplers (Princeton, NJ: Pyne Press, 1974), pI. 5. This sampler should be dated c.1824, rather than 1814. Samplers of this format have not yet been identified that bear such an early date. 

5. The Haws sampler is in a private collection; see Sotheby's, New York, catalogue, Property from the Collection of the Late Helen Janssen Wetzel, part 2, H-3, Tulpehocken Farm, PA, October 2-4,1980, lot 1939. I am greatly indebted to Blanche Moss for detailed information regarding this embroidery. 

6. The Fawkes sampler is in a private collection; see Sotheby's, New York, catalogue, Important American Furniture and Related Decorative Am, 4478Y, November 19-22,1980, lot 1171. 

7. This verse (see "Inscription") appeared on later Chester County samplers, which were similar, but even more lavish and elegant than their forerunners, for example, the sampler worked by Phebe Mode Hall, 1831, discussed in Ring, "Samplers and Pictorial Needlework," 1430. Phebe's sampler appears to be closely related to Mary Lewis's, although the window or arbor has been replaced by landscape foliage. See also Georgianna Brown Harbeson, American Needlework (N ew York, NY: Bonanza Books, 1938), opp. 52. The sampler, worked by Sarah H. James, 1820, names her instructress as "E. Passmore." 

8. Ring, "Samplers and Pictorial Needlework," 1430.