Kernow Forever! Barbara Kirk Samplers @ Auction in Kernow (Cornwall) * 6 May 2014

Lot 202 is a pair of samplers from the mid 19th century, one (RHS) is a pictorial sampler stitched by Mary Ann Kerkeek, aged 12 years, February 11, 1840. Another similar pictorial sampler featuring a monkey climbing a tree. I can't say for sure that these are Cornish samplers but Kerkeek looks a Cornish name to me. Interestingly, there was a Kerkeek Gold Mining Company in Adelaide, South Australia. The Cornish were famed miners and Cornish gold and tin were mined in antiquity. The estimate for this pair of sampler is £120 - £180.

Just this week we heard that Cornwall (Kernow in Cornish) has been granted minority status which puts it on the same footing now as Wales and Scotland. Cornwall has an ancient and strong sea-faring Celtic heritage which places it nearer in language and culture to French Brittany than England. Grand Bard of Cornwall, Maureen Fuller, said: Cornish people have a proud and distinct identity and a genuinely democratic society respects the ethnic, cultural and linguistic identity of people belonging to a national minority. We are proud of our history and our unique language and look forward to the day when these feature as regular subjects on school timetables and are spoken of by Cornish people as a way of life. Here you can see the flag of Kernow flying. I am looking forward to enjoying my first Kernow Pasty, Kernow Clotted Cream Tea and Kernow Ice-cream...

I am not sure I have ever seen a Cornish sampler for certain before - so here at last - not just one, but two. The largest sampler on the LHS is not only Cornish by make but Cornish by name, stitched by A F Cornish in 1834. The larger sampler on the RHS is by A Hitchens at Duloe School (between Looe on the coast and Liskeard inland). In the group is another piece signed Jane Hitchens and A Hitchens. The set of 3 is for auction with 33 more sampler lots at Barbara Kirk Auctions, Cornwall on 6 May 2014. It is Lot  214 with an estimate of £70-£90.

Lot 202 above is a sampler by Elizabeth Fawcett dated 1831 and has an estimate of £120 - £180.

Above is Lot 224 - A pictorial sampler stitched by Jane Wray, 1824 featuring Adam & Eve. Its estimate is £80 - £100.

A pictorial, wool embroidered sampler by Jane Peckitt, Burythorpe, 1859 is Lot 228. Burythorpe is in the Yorkshire Wolds, a long way from home! The estimate for this sampler is £70 - £90.

Last but not least is this charming sampler by Eliza Etherington, aged 12, 1861, featuring a globe, an anchor, a sailing ship & horse rider. Its estimate is £60 - £80. For more details of the auction and to see the other samplers in the sale, click here.