Rare watercolor gift drawing: 1st My Children Dear, Whom I Do Love, Polly Collins (1801-1884) Hancock, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, dated 1854

Ink, pencil and watercolor on paper

Inscribed recto, ink: 1st, My children dear, whom I do love / And nourish with my care; Yea daily feed you from above / And hear your fervent prayer. 2nd Tis O once more yourMother dear / who does you now addrefs;/ And daily guides you with that fear / which you should ever pofsefs. 3rd  To  those who ask I give my love,/ Kind Elder’s now believe;/ That when you look to Heaven above / you'll certainly receive. 4th For those like you whofaithful are / Shall ever be blest by me / I know full well you have much cure / And troubles oft you see. 5th



When upon Earth my care was great/ Afflictions oft I felt / The wicked scoffed yea did berate / And harshly with me dealt. 6th But to my God I then did look / His mercy to implore / When many times my frame was shook / By an Almighty power. 7th This gave me strength for to perform / My duty while below / Though dragon like in man made form / Some raged to and fro. 8th But now dear children you can sing / In peace within your doors / Praises unto your Heavenly King/and dance upon your floors. 9th For this unto the Lord give thanks / That you have liberty / To dance and sing in Zion's ranks / And praise your Maker free./This drawing was given by Mother Ann as an emblem of her love, for the Elder Sisters at the Church; City of Union,/ Brought by Sara Dana to an inspired Sister at the City of Peace / and drafted by the same June 1854

Sotheby's New York, January 17 and 19, 1997, lot 1561

"American Radiance: Highlights of the Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum," de Menil Gallery at Groton School, Groton, Massachusetts, October 15 - December 15, 2002
"Women Only: Folk Art by Female Hands," New York, American Folk Art Museum, April 6-September 12, 2010

Andrews, Jeanmarie. ''A Rare Find." Early American Homes (April 1997 ): 80
Kramer, Fran, and Lita Solis-Cohen. "Shaker Gift Drawings Surface." Maine Antique Digest 24, no. II (November 1996): 42-A
Reif, Rita. ''A Shaker Rarity Causes a Stir," New York Times, January 12, 1997, p. 44 (detail)
Solis-Cohen, Lita. "It All Depends on Who You Know," Maine Antique Digest (December 1996): IO-A
Wertkin, Gerard C. "Director's Letter," Folk Art 22, no. 1 (spring 1997): 11
American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum, p. 319, fig. 281

Paper slightly wrinkled, some very small amount of darkening of paper, tiny 'nick' at edge of top.
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When this work was discovered in 1996, it joined fifteen gift drawings attributed to Polly Collins and bearing dates from 1841 to 1859.¹Her compositions are not as bold and direct as those of another Hancock Shaker, Hannah Cohoon, but they often incorporate similar arboreal motifs. Collins was very active as an instrument, or medium, at Hancock during the revival period. In addition to the drawings, she recorded many visionary experiences and gift messages.

For this and several other drawings, Collins constructed a distinctive grid of squares or rectangles, each of which contains stylized figures of trees, colorful flowering plants, and, occasionally, arbors or other objects. The overall compositions of these works and their individual elements suggest the design of album quilts. Despite their insularity, the Shakers were not immune to influences from outside their villages. Not only were memories of the visual culture of the region retained, but new directions in design found their way into Shaker communities through recent converts, publications, and the reports of those Shakers who were charged with doing business with the outside world. Decorative bedcovers were not made or used in nineteenth-century Shaker villages, and album quilts had not become a popular form at the time Collins entered Hancock in 1820. By 1854, however, when she created this drawing, album quilts were widely known, and their influence on this drawing cannot be dismissed.

According to the inscription on this drawing, it was inspired by Mother Ann Lee (1736-1784), the founder of the Shaker faith, and intended as a gift to the Church family eldresses (or "Elder Sisters") at the City of Union. During the Era of Manifestations, each Shaker village received a spiritual designation. The community at Enfield, Connecticut, for example, was known as the "City of Union," while Hancock was the "City of Peace." Collins inscribed a similar drawing from Ann Lee to the elders of the North family, probably at Hancock. -G.C.W.

¹ Patterson, Gift Drawing and Gift Song, pp.51-54.