Julia Margaret Bachman,
Charleston, South Carolina,
1833

Sampler size:
14" x 13"

Price: $11,000

Enlarged and Printer Version

Born on October 15, 1825, Julia Margaret Bachman was one of the 14 children of Rev. Dr. John and Harriet (Martin) Bachman. John Bachman (1790-1874) was a renowned Lutheran pastor, social reformer and long time civic leader of Charleston. He was a great supporter of the African American population; he ministered to, and illegally educated, members of this community. He was best known, however, as a devoted and gifted naturalist who worked closely with John James Audubon, beginning in 1831 and for many decades; they co-authored some of the most monumental works on American birds and mammals. Audubon named two species of birds, Bachman's Sparrow and Bachman's Warbler, after his friend. The Bachman home, a classic Charleston four-story house on Rutledge Avenue, served as home base for Audubon and was known for the animals, birds and plants that cohabitated along with the Bachman family.

A book entitled Had I the Wings: The Friendship of Bachman & Audubon by Jay Shuler offers a great deal of information about the Bachman family. Portions of family letters indicate that Julia was "the beauty of the family." Tragically, Julia fell ill in 1847, at age 22 and, after a trip to the hot springs in Virginia in the hopes that her consumption would be cured, Julia died.

We are privileged to offer this highly rare and very interesting sampler, worked by Julia Margaret Bachman when she was seven years old, in 1833. The sampler, obviously an early project, offers alphabets, numbers, a four-line religious verse with a pair of fruit baskets, and two stylized little trees, distinct characteristics found on South Carolina samplers, in the lower corners. In 2006 The Charleston Museum presented an excellent exhibition entitled A Proper and Polite Education: Girlhood Embroidery of the American South and this exhibition documented the style of sampler from South Carolina.

The Bachman family remained deeply involved with the Audubon family, and two of Julia's sisters married sons of John James Audubon. After his wife died in 1846, Rev. Dr. Bachman married her sister, Maria Martin, who went on to become a highly regarded naturalist painter, contributing to the illustrations of the important publications by Audubon and others. Rev. Dr. Bachman was the professor of Natural History at the College of Charleston, founder of Newberry College and of the South Carolina Lutheran Synod. The sampler remained in this distinguished family for generations, descending initially to a niece and namesake. Worked in silk on linen, the sampler is in very good condition with some minor loss and stabilization to one area of the linen. It has been conservation mounted and is in a figured maple frame.

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