There is a significant and very appealing group of antique samplers worked between 1827 and 1831 by Pennsylvania German girls living in Reading, Pennsylvania. These are markedly sophisticated samplers, all highly developed with a great number of shared pictorial motifs; they demonstrate very advanced skill in the needle arts. The initials, M.T., most certainly those of the instructress, appear on seven of these samplers and a few others are clearly part of the same group. Historical Needlework of Pennsylvania by Margaret B. Schiffer (Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1968) illustrates the sampler made by Harriet Weiser in 1830, first bringing these interesting and excellent samplers to the attention of scholars in the field. 

We’re delighted to be able to offer a recent addition to the group, an outstanding sampler signed by C. Bickel and dated 1827. Included are many of the important signature motifs of this group – the substantial five-bay house, large double-handled vase of flowers, fruit trees, horn of plenty filled with flowers and grapes, baskets of fruit, and assorted queen’s stitched elements, all enclosed within a sawtooth framework and surrounded by a praiseworthy border of queen’s-stitched strawberries and flowers. The original silk rosettes remain in the corners. 

The samplermaker included her parents’ initials, C.B. and A.B., allowing for her identification. She was Catharine Bickel, born September 16, 1816, to a blacksmith, Anthony and Catharine (Fasig) Bickel. She married Frederick Haberacker (1812-1849) in 1835 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Reading and they had at least three children. Catharine Haberacker appears in the 1898 Reading City Directory, living at 130 S. 4th Street in Reading. She died in 1904 and is buried in Charles Evans Cemetery along with family members. Notice of her death was published in the Reading Eagle. 

The samper was worked in silk on linen, with original silk corner rosettes. It is in excellent condition with a tiny area of loss to the linen. It has been conservation mounted into a molded, black painted frame.

This is an outstanding Family Register sampler; it’s quite large and features extremely fine and delicate needlework. Notably, this was exhibited and published by the DAR Museum in Washington, DC in 1989 as part of their groundbreaking exhibit, Family Record: Genealogical Watercolors and Needlework. It appears as figure 90 in Gloria Seaman Allen’s accompanying book of the same name.

The samplermaker, Hannah Winchell, was born on September 30, 1801, the ninth of eleven children of Samuel and Sally (Fulton) Winchell. The Winchell family lived in Topsham and Harpswell, coastal towns of southern Maine, throughout the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Samuel was a fifth-generation descendant of Robert Winchell, who arrived in America in 1635, settling in Hartford, Connecticut. Hannah’s great grandfather Samuel Winchell, was a man of considerable wealth and influence in Harpswell and Topsham, owning part of a vast mill in the area. Much information is included in The Winchell Genealogy: The Ancestry and Children of Those Born to the Winchell Name in America Since 1635, by Newton H. Winchell and Alexander N. Winchell (Minneapolis, MN, 1917) and photocopies are included in the file that accompanies the sampler. 

Hannah Winchell worked this sampler when she was 21, in 1822, recording her family births and, later, adding information about her own marriage and subsequent family deaths. In 1826, she married Capt. George Gray of Bowdoinham and they became the parents of a son, George Gray. Sadly, Capt. Gray died eleven months after their wedding. Hannah died at age 85, in 1887, and is buried at First Parish Cemetery in Topsham.

This sampler is notable for its impressive size as well as its extreme delicacy, a winning combination. The linen is very fine which makes it that much more difficult for a needleworker to accomplish her fine lettering and decorative motifs.  The large flowers on delicate vines, looped blue bowknots, graceful willow tree and letter-perfect inscriptions were accomplished in cross-stitch, French knots, satin stitch and eyelet stitch. 

Worked in silk on linen, this antique sampler is in excellent condition. It has been conservation mounted into a bird’s eye maple frame.

A group of highly significant, sought-after samplers comes from Maryland; these are called the Fruit and Flower Samplers; most of them are large and beautifully made samplers with fabulous borders of splendid, fat pineapples, dark blue grapes bunches on leafy, tendrilled vines and outstanding flower baskets below. Those within this group that are the most highly developed feature a delightful scene of sheep and butterflies in the center panel. A Maryland Sampling: Girlhood Embroidery, 1738-1860, by Gloria Seaman Allen (Maryland Historical Society, 2007), discusses this group at length and identifies Ann Barclay Cloud’s Bel Air Academy, located in Bel Air, the county seat of Harford County, as the source of some of these samplers. Blanch Welch, born circa 1808 in Harford County, worked this praiseworthy sampler in 1819; it is a new discovery and important addition to this group and is attributed to the Bel Air Academy. It closely resembles Susanna Holland’s sampler, made in 1816, in the collection of the Baltimore Art Museum. 

Blanch Welch was born circa 1808 in Harford County, Maryland and in 1837 married Joshua Rutledge (1797-1843). He was from an early Harford County family. Blanch and Joshua had one child, a son, born in 1842 and Joshua died the following year. The 1850 census shows Blanch and her 8-year-old son, named Joshua for his father, living in Harford. Blanch died in 1854. 

Worked in silk on linen, it is in excellent condition and conservation mounted into a figured maple frame.

This sampler is from our archives and has been sold.

Documented Irish samplers are rare, and we’re pleased to offer this one, which offers strong visual appeal with excellent color and composition. A fine, large alphabet, little house, pots of flowers, verse, little hearts and crowns are all framed with a border of strawberries on a stylized vine. 

The antique sampler is signed by Mary Wallace of Loughriescouse, dated June 1847. Loughriescouse is a village east of Belfast and research points to Mary Wallace, born 1838, daughter of Robert Wallace, who lived in Newtownards, the village next to Loughriescouse. She married Hugh McCutcheon in 1861.

The sampler was worked in silk and wool on linen and is in excellent condition with a very few missing stitches. It has been conservation mounted and is in a molded mahogany frame. See below for a photo of the reverse of the sampler, taken prior to mounting.

photo of reverse

An excellent Pennsylvania antique sampler, this was made by Sybila Spang of Lebanon County, southeastern Pennsylvania. She completed her work on April 18, 1838. Born on April 7, 1821, Sybila was the daughter of Michael and Susanna (Rasley) Spang. She descended from Hans George Spang (1725-1800), who was born in Germany and emigrated to Pennsylvania, documented as arriving in 1751. In 1844, Sybila married Michael Stroh (1818-1874) and they lived in Annville, Lebanon County, where they had at least 6 children. When she died at age 90 in 1912, notice was published in the local newspaper, Lebanon Courier. 

Sybila featured a large, beautiful, pale yellow double-chimney house with deep green windows, set within an interesting, stylized leafy vine. Flowers, a grape bunch and a black bird are worked into the composition. Notably, the flower at the upper left of the roof, worked in metallic thread with red petals, was accomplished in tambour work, an interesting technique not found on most samplers. Alphabets and numerical progressions along with a border that integrates strawberries into a narrow geometric band complete the composition. 

The sampler was worked in silk and metallic thread on linen and is in excellent condition. It has been conservation mounted and is in a walnut frame. 

photo of reverse

A classic English antique sampler worked in a balanced format, this has the added appeal of birds, butterflies and flying insects that were stitched in a more free-form, organic way than we generally find and contribute much to the composition. The samplermaker, Susanna Hickson, used beautifully formed eyelet stitches for her name and nestled the date, 1783, into the bottom border. The verse is an appealing variation of a published psalm. 

Susanna was born in 1768 to William and Elizabeth (Wilcox) Hickson of Nottingham and then Leicestershire, England. We know of a sampler made her younger sister, Elizabeth, and the two samplers are very similar. 

Susanna married John Coy in 1802 and they had at least 4 children. She died in 1846 at age 78.

See below for a photo of the reverse of the sampler, taken prior to mounting. 

Worked in silk on wool, the sampler is in excellent condition and has been conservation mounted into its fine original molded, carved and painted frame. 

photo of reverse

A small group of exemplary antique samplers, attributed to a schoolteacher, Mrs. C. Evans, was made by schoolgirls from Bucks and Montgomery Counties outside of Philadelphia. The highly developed ones include a central basket of flowers, butterflies, birds and excellent borders and the samplers are skillfully worked throughout. The leaves are often two-tone with well-defined veins. This fine sampler, made by Sarah Ann Fell, fits squarely into this group and we’re delighted to offer it. In addition to a praiseworthy depiction of her flower basket and butterflies, Sarah’s border is more interesting than that found on most of the samplers in this group – a graceful vine winds its way around the sampler, with three tulips at the bottom and a bird perched at the top. Other flowers, veined leaves and grape bunches embellish it as well.

Sarah Ann Fell was one of five children and was born in 1812, the daughter of Dr. David Fell (1774-1856) and his wife, Phebe (Schofield) Fell (1773—1858) of Buckingham, Bucks County. They were Quakers and members of the Buckingham Meeting, where they were married in 1803. Dr. Fell attended the University of Pennsylvania and was a pioneer physician in Bucks County. Sarah attended Westtown School in, entering in November 1830. 

As an adult, Sarah became a notably successful schoolteacher, along with her older sister Edith, born in 1807. Sarah lived some of the time with her brother, Joseph, who is noted as a prominent and well-respected schoolteacher in Bucks County, and superintendent of schools. He was an active Quaker and staunch abolitionist, providing refuge as part of the Underground Railroad. Sarah removed to Columbiana County, Ohio late in her life and died there in 1872. 

Genealogy of the Fell Family in America, compiled by Sarah M. Fell (1891), provided much of the above information and traces the family back to Joseph Fell who was born in England in 1668 and emigrated to Pennsylvania, settling in Buckingham, where he died in 1748. 

We are grateful to scholar Barbara Hutson for her extensive research into this group of samplers and the genealogy of Sarah Ann Fell. 

The sampler was worked in silk on linen and is in excellent condition with one very minor darned area to the linen. It has been conservation mounted and is in a fine mahogany frame. 

A beautifully worked antique sampler with two glorious baskets of flowers and fine needlework throughout, this is signed, “Lavinia Clark Brown aged 12 Salem July 12, 1825.” We call attention to the fact that she completed the sampler on her 12th birthday! Along with the inscription inside the excellent and delicately stitched octagonal surround is the verse, “Modesty is a gem of so pure a lustre that the least deviation from its rule injures its lily hue.”  Another verse, stitched under a little galaxy of stars, reads, “Glorious actions placed on high/ Shine more with distinguished blaze / On them nations fix their eye / And grow virtuous as they gaze.”  

Notably, at the end of the large script alphabet, it reads, “L.C.B. & M.E.”, Lavinia’s initials and, most likely, those of her teacher. At the end of the alphabet below that is a listing of the vowels.  The border is enormously appealing - tightly world zigzags with carefully worked, slightly larger stars, framed with a border that echoes the octagonal surround. 

Lavinia was born on July 12, 1813, the daughter of John A. Brown of Salem, Massachusetts  and Lavinia (Clarke) Brown of Northampton, Massachusetts, who married in 1804. She was married in 1834 to Ezra Kendall Robinson (1809-1868) in Salem, Massachusetts. The 1860 census shows the family, with two children and Lavinia’s mother, in Kennebec, Maine, where Ezra was a merchant. Lavinia died in 1873 and is buried in Philadelphia, in Laurel Hill Cemetery, along with her husband. 

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

photo of reverse

This is a delightful antique sampler grounded along the bottom with a fine scene of a cottage and trees set along a picket fence with fat birds above. It also includes a carefully stitched verse that praises learning above all and counsels that the product of one’s finger ends – the sampler – will outlast all else. 

Ann Glaister was born September 8, 1810, to Thomas and Ann (Dawson) Glaister of Saltcoats, a coastal village in northern England. She was the fourth of their six children. In 1840, Ann married William Little, a farmer, and they remained in Cumberland where they had at least three children. Ann died in 1881 at age 70. 

The sampler was worked in silk on linen, with dark blue silk for verse. It is in excellent condition with a few lost stitches. It has been conservation mounted into its fine, original molded maple frame. 

Signed, “Eliza Axford Carrfield House 1831,” this is an outstanding antique sampler with a very appealing central scene. Carrfield House, a delightful structure rendered in great detail, was most likely in Ramsbottom, north of Manchester and may have been home to the samplermaker. It is depicted on a lawn formed of various shades of green along with many sprouting plants, curved pathways, trees and fences. Several birds animate the scene and an assortment of hearts, baskets, crowns and miniature pine trees fill the sampler. The border and the cartouche surround are unusually intricate, decorated with detailed and specific botanical blossoms. 

Notably all of the lettering on the sampler was what was called the Round Hand; this was the most widely used commercial script in the early 19th century and not easy to replicate with needle and thread. 

The sampler was worked in silk on linen and is in excellent condition with two very minor darns to the linen. It has been conservation mounted and is in its original molded and painted frame.