Adam and Eve Wore Jeans

It is always exciting to find similarities between samplers and I was very struck by the configuration of the Adam and Eves - and their apparel on both these samplers which is virtually identical. I remember being shown this first sampler many years ago by my friend Freda Chapman who looked after textiles at The Haslemere Educational Museum as well as being Chair of the Textile Society - Oh look, she said, as only Freda can say, Adam and Eve are sporting matching jeans! This sampler was stitched by Margaret Horsley at Westow (sic) School in 1812. The Haslemere Educational Museum has a CD of their sampler collection which is now licensed for sale in the Museum only - for more details, simply click here.This second sampler was stitched by Charlotte Pickering in 1827 and there is no attributed school. So here we can see the long life span of some sampler motifs - in this case some 15 years or more - and it is for this reason that undated samplers can be difficult to date with more precion than 25 years. This sampler was sold some time ago at auction by Tennants of Leyburn.