Mary Ann Egee,
New Jersey or Pennsylvania,
1830

Sampler size:
17" x 22"

Price: $7400

Enlarged and Printer Version

This splendid large pictorial sampler features a double-chimney brick house flanked by curly-tailed dogs on a deep green lawn. Large baskets and a pair of stately pine trees provide further decoration to the scene. A praiseworthy assortment of motifs, many of them well-known from Quaker sampler design, appear in an airy composition throughout the rest of the sampler. Notable amongst these are the branches of flowers, small cornucopias with flowers, baskets of fruit, many birds and butterflies and an urn with pendulous acorns. The cartouche that contains the name and date, as well as the pair of birds on a stylized branch below, are also found on many area Quaker samplers made from 1800 forth. This sampler was made in southeastern Pennsylvania or nearby New Jersey, where this composition and these elements predominate.

The words of the four line poem run together charmingly, eschewing looks and wealth in favor of wisdom. Mary Ann used a technique rarely found on schoolgirl embroidery, an appliqué of metallic thread tambour needlework which forms the flower at the top of the little arrangement coming out of the urn at the upper right. Additionally, her border, a tightly designed and executed strawberry on vine composition, makes use of the technically challenging queen's-stitch, another indication of Mary Ann's high level of expertise.

The sampler was worked in silk on linen and is in excellent condition. It has been conservation mounted and is in its original mahogany frame.

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