Samplers For Auction @ Tennants Leyburn 10 May 2014

Tennants have 17 samplers for sale in their Vintage Costume, Textiles, Dolls and Teddy Bears auction this coming Saturday. I thought it might be nice just to concentrate on one of the north country and Scottish samplers in the sale there. This lively sampler - Lot 1227 - above was worked by Mary Low, Aged 12 of Forgandenny in 1825. Forgandenny is a small village just to south-west of Perth in Scotland and the school still stands (see below), though it is probably somewhat enlarged from what would have been there in Mary's day. The text is a verse form of the Ten Commandments - one of which exhorts From whoredom keep the chaste and clean. Since I was educated with a bowdlerized Shakespeare at school, I don't think this sampler would meet with Bowdler's stricture that it should be with words and expressions omitted which cannot with propriety be read aloud in a family. And we can see Mary's family here on the sampler between the two alphabet rows. Her father, J Low was the son of father A Low and mother MG. Her mother, EM, was the daughter of father JM and mother ID. Since these grandparents are all marked in black it is reasonable to construe they were all deceased at the time of this sampler's making. Mary's siblings are JO Low, E Low and F Low. This sampler measures 33cm by 47cm and has an estimate of £150-250. For more details of the Tennant Auction, click here.