Witney Antiques Annual Exhibition * Samplers - Products of a Youthful Mind * 16-29 October 2011

The exibition featuring samplers from 1660-1880 will be open at Witney Antiques 10am - 5pm daily. Admission is free. There will also be exhibits by Christopher and Angela Legge, specialists in Oriental and Tribal Carpets and Rugs, and John Howard a world renowned expert who will be showing Early Staffordshire Pottery. Most exhibits will be for sale such as these samplers here. The one above is by Massey Gibbons stitched in 1801 at West Town School, Pennsylvania, America - see Needleprint Blog Post about this sampler - Massey entered West Town School in 1800 and embroidered this charming friendship sampler a year later. Typical of a series of samplers recorded as being worked at West Town, the sampler uses images found on Quaker samplers in both America and the UK. Framed, it measures 13 x 13 ins.

Above is a Brown Family Memorial Sampler stitched around 1835. Memorial and family register samplers were for some reason more popular in America than England. A note on the reverse of the sampler tells us that it was embroidered by Anna Maria Brown (1822 - 1900). Worked through a linen backing, the sampler is enclosed within a floral border. A large urn gives family details and is surrounded by two weeping willow trees in shaded long and short stitch. Contained in a period black ebonised frame it measures 17 x 18 ins.

Above you can see a work by Eliz Hooper who ‘Ended This Aged Eight Years 1728'. From the inscription at the base of this sampler we see that Eliz was exceptionally accomplished with her needle at a very young age. Worked in brilliantly unfaded floss silks on an unbleached linen ground, the sampler is worked in band format with alternating striking band patterns and moralistic texts.

And last but not least by Mary Williams dated 1809. This is an outstanding and rare map of Ireland showing clear Quaker influences in the style of lettering and the floral cartouche. Embroidered in coloured silks on fine linen this was probably Mary’s final piece before leaving school. The map bears a strong resemblance to that by Susanna Harvey embroidered in 1791 at nearby Mount Mellick Boarding School, illustrated Lanto Synge, Art of Embroidery, Fig. 198.