Postrema Ridgway,
Burlington Co., New Jersey,
1805

Sampler size:
10½" x 11¼"

Price: $5500

Enlarged and Printer Version

This splendid small pictorial sampler boasts excellent composition and outstanding needlework. It was made by nine-year-old Postrema Ridgway who was a Quaker girl from Burlington County, New Jersey, born in July of 1796. Her parents were John and Elizabeth (Paxson) Ridgway, whom each had descended from many generations of Burlington County Quakers. Postreme was the sixth of their nine children and was named for her paternal grandmother, Postreme (Shinn) Ridgway (1741-1831). Published family genealogical information indicates that Postreme married Isaac Jones of Philadelphia.

Postrema was clearly working within the 18th century samplermaking traditions of Philadelphia and New Jersey. The motifs that she featured include a leaping stag, castle-like building, paired birds, yellow swans, baskets of fruit, butterflies, stalks of blue bells and a lustrous green lawn and borders formed of double lines with finely worked flowers, buds and berries. A four-line verse reads, "Let joy and Worship spend / The remnants of my days / And to my God my soul ascend / In sweet perfumes of Praise," and the inscription is contained by a leafy cartouche, again a regional characteristic.

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

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