Sarah Parker, Massachusetts, 1799
Price: $2800, Sampler size: 11¾" x 10¾"

Sarah Parker's handsome sampler fits into the tradition of 18th century samplers made in the towns of coastal northern Massachusetts, with little hillocks of plants and trees and deeply arcaded borders. Sarah was eleven years old when she made this sampler (one is eleven years old when in one's twelfth year), which includes several alphabets and a numerical progression. The large scripted alphabet at the center was worked in the Round Hand, the font that was the most widely used commercial script of the 18th century.

Worked in silk on tan linen, the sampler is in excellent condition. It has been conservation mounted and is in a 19th century gold frame.