Motif Sampler,
Italy,
circa 1820

Sampler size:
8¼" x 17"

Price: $1200

Enlarged and Printer Version

This sampler presents a sampling of various and interesting needlework motifs. Various images and short sections of decorative bands, such as floral vines and a Greek key, are worked throughout the composition without specific symmetry. A four-story house, trees, stuffed baskets, a variety of birds, a cradle and religious motifs, all of which are found on many samplers from European countries have been included on this sampler. Centered, and framed on its own, is a monstrance, a Catholic receptacle containing the Host. Here a pair of candlesticks flanks it.

Far fewer samplers are known from Italy than those made in some other southern European countries, and it seems that the samplermaking tradition may not have been as important a part of the education of Italian girls as it was elsewhere. This young needleworker possibly practiced imagery that would later appear on other forms of needlework.

This sampler has been worked in silk on linen and remains in excellent condition. It is conservation mounted into a beveled frame.

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