Remember Now Thy Creator: Scottish Girls’ Samplers, 1700-1872 - Naomi Tarrant * Now available from Amazon starting £15.10

The long awaited book by Naomi Tarrant is ready to buy now. Your best purchasing possibility in the UK is via Amazon but see below for details of publisher and a book distributor if you live elsewhere. Naomi writes: Samplers are a unique type of artefact, blending together artistic expression, teaching tool and historical document. They identify their creator and can reveal much about their lives and families. Samplers are often celebrations of intricate detail and exuberant design, meant to teach young girls the skills they needed for working embroidery. This volume considers samplers made in Scotland within the context of girl’s lives. It is illustrated by a wide selection of pieces from public and private collections and shows the remarkable variety that was made by young girls as they learnt needle skills. The aim of this book is to look at samplers made in Scotland as well as their place in the education of girls, putting them within the social context of the period. The time spanned covers the first emergence of a specific Scottish style and ends with the introduction of the 1872 Education (Scotland) Act which made schooling a local government responsibility. The contents include a brief history of samplers, before considering the documentary evidence for samplers in Scotland and the earliest surviving pieces. Schooling for girls and the importance of plain sewing samplers are dealt with before looking at embroidered examples, the various types found in Scotland and how certain designs appear to be specific to this country. An important aspect of Scottish samplers is the use of family initials that allows for tracing the makers in various archive sources. During research for the book the author, Naomi Tarrant, came across an old sampler made into a bag among the Seafield Papers in the National Records of Scotland. “It survived because it contained the executory papers of Lady Ann Duff, who was born in 1725 and died in 1805. There are no known samplers made by Scottish girls surviving before the early years of the eighteenth century, although there are documentary records that they were made from at least the mid sixteenth century, so this was an exciting find. Although it had no date and its maker is unknown, it is possibly the oldest Scottish sampler that now survives, dating to at least the mid-seventeenth century.” Photographs and a fuller details on the piece feature in the book.
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Click here to contact the publisher - Society of Antiquaries of Scotland or alternatively from: Books can be ordered from Booksource: 50 Cambuslang Road, Cambuslang, Glasgow G32 8NB Tel: 0845 370 0067 orders@booksource.net