Sampler
- Object Name:
- Sampler
- Creator:
- Foster, Hannah (1784-1873)
- Date:
- circa1796
- Material:
- Textile
Silk
Linen - Dimensions:
- H-15.6 W-15.25 inches
- Description:
- Sampler. Made by Hannah Foster (1784-1873), Canterbury, NH; c. 1796. Worked in silk floss (mostly) and twist on a loosely woven linen ground fabric. Features an alphabet worked in Algerian eye stitch in cream, yellow, and blue at the top, followed by a strawberry vine design. The second alphabet is in block capital letters, worked in dark green cross stitch, followed by an ampersand and the numbers one through eleven. After another decorative band design appears a third alphabet of lower case letters, except for the "A" in pale blue cross stitches. Below this is the inscription: "Hannah Foster her sampler wrought / in the twelfth year of her age A.D 179" [and then she ran out of room]. The lower third of the sampler is covered with a design of a basket of flower between two hillocks sprouting with flowers and flanked by trees. Two birds, facing each other, sit on the tops of the flowers. Emanating from the central flower in the basket is a moustache-like leaf configuration. Floral vines with birds and terminating in a pineapple-like design sprouting flowers border the sides of the alphabet panel. These motifs are outlined in black, and filled with cross, tent, satin (possibly surface satin, but the reverse is not accessible to tell), and bullion stitches. The inked design is visible under the stitching and in an unfinished leaf on the left side. The colors remain rich, and include several shades of green, yellow, pink, cream, brown, and blue. The edges are hemstitched.
- Provenance:
- Made by Hannah Foster (1784-1873) of Canterbury, NH. She married Joseph Moody (1788-1879) of Penacook, NH, in 1815. Their oldest daughter, Mary Jane, married Capt. Nathaniel Rolfe of Penacook, NH. The donor was the wife of their son, Abial Walker Rolfe (1844-1926).
- Place of Origin:
- Canterbury, NH
- Collection Name:
- Inventory
- Item Number:
- 1940.002
- Accession Number:
- 1940.002
- Type of Material:
- Objects
- Copyright Statement:
- For information regarding copyright, permissions, and reproductions contact the New Hampshire Historical Society
- Credit Line:
- Gift of Georgianna J. Rolfe
- Participating Organization:
- New Hampshire Historical Society
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