November, i p i 6 
41 
a house 1763, of numerals 
1655, of a verse 1696. In 
“Samplers and Tapestry” 
Huist gives a useful list of 
such date “clues.” He also 
suggests 1728 as the approxi¬ 
mate date of the introduction 
of mustard-colored canvas. 
The Difficulties of the 
Stitches 
“Sad sewers make bad 
samplers,” said Lord de Tab- 
ley in “The Soldier of For¬ 
tune,” but the wonder is that 
the little fingers of yesterday 
could have acquired not only 
skill in one sort of embroid¬ 
ery, but in the varied stitches 
often seen in a single sampler 
remarkable for its perfect and 
exquisite handiwork. One is 
almost aghast, for instance, at 
the task suggested by John 
Taylor’s “The Needles Excel¬ 
lency” where one reads— 
“Tent-worke, Raised-worke, 
Laid-w orke, Frost- 
worke, Net-worke, 
Most curious Purles or rare 
Italian Cut-worke, 
Fine Ferne-stitch, Finny- 
stitch, Hew-stitch and 
China-stitch, 
Brave Bred-stitch, Fisher- 
stitch, Irish-stitch and 
Queen-stitch, 
The Spanish-stitch, Rose¬ 
mary-stitch and Morose- 
stitch, 
The Smarting Whip-stitch, 
Back-stitch and the 
Cross-stitch. 
All these are good and these 
we must allow, 
And these are everywhere 
now.” 
The framed sampler has become a favorite decoration. In Colonial 
houses it is especially suitable as a cherished mark of old-time dili¬ 
gence and aspiring childhood 
in practice 
With the infinitude of stitches it is not 
necessary here to be concerned, although 
the enthusiast in sampler collecting will find 
the study of stitches helpful just as the ex¬ 
pert will find it highly necessary. As there 
is much confusion in the nomenclature there 
will be many stumbling blocks, but the pur¬ 
suit will be worth while. The earliest 17th 
Century samplers of lace-like appearance 
were worked in cut-and-drawn embroidery, 
with various additional lace stitches. Then 
there was the eyelet-stitch, damask-stitch, 
the back-stitch (these three were used for 
alphabets), darning-stitches, tent-stitches 
and tapestry-stitch (unusual) and so on. 
English samplers, with which 
I think they vie in interest and 
attractiveness. Surely there 
could be no more delightful 
wall decoration for a Colonial 
house than one of the early 
American samplers. These are 
less commonly found than 
English samplers and Amer¬ 
ican collectors naturally give 
them preference. 
How the little misses of 
olden times managed at such 
tender ages to produce such 
handiwork seems almost 
amazing. In his book Huist 
shows a “Goldfinch” sampler 
that seems a truly marvelous 
piece of work by a child of 
seven, and another wee miss, 
aged six, stitched the infor¬ 
mation that— 
“When i was young 
And in my Prime 
Here you may see 
How i spent my time.” 
Poor little thing! 
The Muse of the Misses 
Poetry and samplers seem 
to have been good friends. In 
the second scene of the third 
act of “Midsummer Night’s 
Dream,” in the fourth scene 
of the second act of “Titus 
Andronicus,” Shakespeare al¬ 
ludes to samplers. So does 
Milton in “Comus” and Sir 
Philip Sidney in "Arcadia.” If 
those blest bards could but 
scan the verse of some of the 
sampler-makers ! Here is one 
which, in its way, is a gem 
' typical of task and talent: 
Sarah Bonney is 
My Name, England is 
My Nation; See How Good 
My Parents is to Give 
Me Education. 
There is rhyming for you! And may we 
not imagine that beneath those sentiments 
lurked a fine humor? 
There is something about the care and 
design of these samplers that makes one 
regard with genuine affection the spirit 
that brought them into being 
Foundation Materials 
The foundation of early samplers was the 
hand-woven linen, either unbleached or 
bleached. Sometimes this was almost as 
coarse as canvas and again of closely woven 
texture. Linen thread or silk (somewhat 
loosely twisted) was employed for the 
stitchery. The harsh, yellow linen of early 
18th Century samplers came into vogue the 
end of its first quarter, hut was soon dis¬ 
carded. Unfortunately tannery cloth was 
much in vogue the end of the 18th Century. 
This unattractive material seemed especially 
devised to satiate the appetites of moths! 
Most of the tannery cloth samplers are 
worked in silk. The muslin-like tiffany 
cloth was occasionally used before 1800 for 
small and fine samplers. After 1800 the 
coarse linens again came into fashion. The 
crudely dyed threads marked the decline of 
the sampler from about 1800. Then cotton 
canvas and Berlin wool completed the fall 
of this one of the gentlest arts. 
The early American samplers had, of 
course, their ancestry and inspiration in 
“To be good is to be happy," stitches this 
anonymous Miss, among the birds and 
animals. Lucky child to have learned 
such ripe wisdom at such a tender age 
