AMERICAN SCHOOL, 19TH CENTURY | NEEDLEWORK PICTURE IN MEMORIAM OF GEORGE AND MARTHA WASHINGTON

Harry Arons, Ansonia, Connecticut;

Christie's New York, The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph K. Ott, January 20, 2012, sale 2635, lot 137;

Clark Pearce, Boston, Massachusetts.

Joseph K. Ott, "Memorials become intricate creations," Providence Sunday Journal, c. 1978;

Maine Antique Digest, April 2012, p. 23-B.

This embroidery takes its composition from a hand-colored stipple engraving of the same title by Samuel Seymour, published by J. Savage in Philadelphia in 1804 and 1814. The scene with an elegantly clad gentleman and two ladies approaching the urn-top monument with the portrait busts of George Martha Washington with their home, Mount Vernon, in the distance, was a popular one, some examples including a view if the Potomac river on the right-hand side. Closely related examples to this work are illustrated and discussed in Betty Ring, American Needlework Treasures: Samplers and Silk Embroideries from the Collection of Betty Ring, (New York: 1987), pp. 101-103, fig. 165, 168.