The Reward of Good Conduct as a Monitress

I was very intrigued to see the inscription on this sampler which is coming up for auction this week on 17 April at Lindsay Burns. It is Lot 207 and is described as a Victorian sampler by Agnes Burnett, Auchtertool, dated 1898, worked in coloured threads with letters of the alphabet, verse, baskets of fruit, initials and crowns, bee, thistle and other flowers and foliage. It is inscribed `WORKED BY AGNES BURNETT THE REWARD OF GOOD CONDUCT AS A MONITRESS AT THE AUCHTERTOOL FEMALE SCHOOL, MARCH 1898`. Am I right to assume that Agnes was rewarded with the thread and linen to make a sampler for herself? Or should this be interprested as the Agnes Burnett Prize for Good Conduct, that was given to someone else for good conduct? And did this form of prize-giving, however it worked, prevail in other schools? And if so, how far back did this practice reach? Mmmmm. Has anyone seen anything with a similar dedication? We'd love to know. By the way the estimate for this is £200 - £300. Click here for more details.

This pretty sampler is Lot 110 for sale at Knowle Auctions on 12 April. It is by Mary Reeves aged 10 years, 1813. The estimate is £150 - £200. Click here for more details.

And another oval sampler is the Lot 2056 for auction on 19th April at Lawrences. It is by Mary Fletcher of Lichfield, aged 8, stitched in 1789. Its estimate is £150 - £200. Click here for more details.

Ella Sprung's Waney Edge Ash Frames

You know how it is - you pour a breakfast cup of tea, take a slip (a slip is a slip of a morning tongue - or perhaps it is a cross between a sip and a slurp - in any case I thought I'd let my Freudian slip stand for your amusement.) and suddenly a light comes on in your head...? Well, I suddenly saw one of Ella's waney-edge ash frames round a sampler - I was thinking multiplication sampler, but I didn't have the right image to play with - so instead I pulled out these two samplers at random and photoshopped them in her frame. She can custom make these to any size. Just click here for more details.

An Eggstraordinary and Happy Easter

Volker Kraft's apple tree in Saalfeld, Germany had 18 eggs for Easter in 1965. Then the Easter Rabbits got very prolific with their deliveries and last year the tree had 9,800 eggs, each beautifully and uniquely decorated - and blown by his family. How many this year, I hear you ask. Ten thousand! You can now see here what develops after 47 years, when the tree grows, the wife blows the eggs and the children start painting, he says. But Volker says he's stopping now, he doesn't have room to store them all unless they fill up his bed. A Happy Easter to you all!

Spring is Sprung (Apologies to Ella and Eppie)

People often ask me what I like best. I am sure you are are asked that, too. For me, I am grateful for my life and the inspiration that there is on every corner of my life. I love my family and I always have to hold my breath when I think what a lot of talented, kind, hard-working, fun, young people we are privileged to call family. You probably know I am a Holdsworth and that I married a Holdsworth. And because of that I have amazing in-laws, one branch of which is the talented Sprung family, my sister-in-law's girls. This collection of crocheted thingy-me-bobs is just something whizz they pulled out the other day.

Eppie, is the younger Sprung - now a Sprung-Dawson since her marriage North of the Border a couple of years ago. She is a dedicated teacher, and I think young people could not have a more dedicated role model and caring advocate than her. (And yes, that is Richard in the yellow linen jacket.)

Ella is the elder Sprung and I have known her since she was just a pair of big eyes under a mop of blonde curls - but somehow she always had a violin or fiddle about her little person. She is now a trained eco-engineer and carpenter.

Here you can see one of her beautiful creations in cherry and ash - a book box - that was made as a present. She does take commisions and you can see more of her work here, just click here.

Oh, yes, she also plays the Nyckelharpa, talks a bunch of languages - Swedish, Roumanian - and is the kindest of hearts, as are all her family. Happer Easter dear Holdsworth-Sprung-Dawsons!