A splendid sampler, this features a wonderful checkerboard bowl of flowers and a praiseworthy three-sided border of flowers and buds on a graceful leafy vine growing out of geometric vases. A teal-blue sawtooth inner border surrounds the alphabet and the verse, “Next unto God dear Parents I address / Myself to you in humble thankfulness / For all your cares and charge on me bestow’d / The means of learning unto me allow’d / Go on I pray and let me still pursue / Such golden arts the vulgar never knew.” A narrow green lawn grounds the composition well.

The inscription was worked inside an elongated, leafy oval and flanked by little floral sprays and reads, “Mary Endicott aet 10,” - aet is the Latin abbreviation for aetatis meaning “at the age of.”

The provenance of this sampler is highly significant as it was in the personal collection of the late Susan B. Swan, the revered, long-time Curator of Textiles at Winterthur Museum. The sampler remained in the collection of one of her sons and is now available for sale.

While the samplermaker, Mary Endicott, will remain without a specific identity, we can be sure that she lived in Massachusetts. Much of the family descended from Governor John Endicott who was born in Dorchester, England and emigrated to New England in 1628. Wikipedia states that he is regarded as one of the Fathers of New England and was the longest-serving governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which became the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He served a total of 16 years, including most of the last 15 years of his life.

The sampler was worked in silk on linen and is in excellent condition. Please see the photo of the reverse of the sampler taken prior to mounting as it indicates that the sampler retains much of its original coloration. It has been conservation mounted and is in a black and gold frame. 
 

photo of reverse
 

An extremely fine and rare silk embroidery made in Newport, Rhode Island, this is entitled, “New Map of France.” It has been highly regarded since 1921 when it was documented and illustrated as Plate XXIX in American Samplers by Ethel Stanwood Bolton and Eve Johnston Coe, published by The Massachusetts Society of the Colonial Dames of America (Boston, 1921). 

The maker, Frances Brenton, was born in Newport in 1767, the daughter of Benjamin and Rachael (Cooke) Brenton. Information about this map and its maker are also included in American Colonial Women and Their Art: A Chronological Encyclopedia by Mary Ellen Snodgrass, Rowman & Littlefield (2018), which provides much information about the silk embroidery and Miss Brenton. The date was misread as 1775 in both of these publications; we are certain that it’s actually 1795. When published in American Samplers (1921), it was in the collection of Mrs. Thomas A. Lawton of Rhode Island, a highly respected collector of samplers and silk embroideries, about whom Betty Ring wrote. 

Much information about the Brenton family was published in Collections of the Rhode Island Historical Society, vol III, (Providence: Marshall, Brown & Co, 1825). Frances’ great-great-grandfather, William Brenton (1600-1674), emigrated from Hammersmith, England and was in America by 1634. Brenton owned extensive tracts of land on Rhode Island in Narragansett and other places. He was President of the Colony in 1660-1, Deputy Governor in 1663 and then from 1666 to 1668, served as Governor. Brenton Point State Park in Newport was named for him. 

Governor Brenton called the area "Hammersmith," a name which survives today with Hammersmith Farm, an estate on the point later owned by the family of Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis. She was raised there and her wedding reception to JFK was held there. 

Frances Brenton made her silk embroidered map when she was 28 years old and an instructress at the time. She signed and dated it in the little banner along the very bottom, as part of the fine flowering vine that serves as a border. The map depicts 91 departments of France, consistent with those that existed in 1795. All of the lettering and outlines of the departments were executed in extremely fine stitches. 

Writing in Let Virtue Be a Guide to Thee Needlework in the Education of Rhode Island Women 1730-1830  (The Rhode Island Historical Society, 1983), Betty Ring provides much information about the generations of the Brenton women of Newport, including Frances and her sisters, Rebecca, Eliza and Sarah. They were involved in teaching between 1793 and 1808. Frances was the eldest and was said to be, “the most beautiful and the most pious; she joined the Moravian church.” She would likely have been a teacher for a few of the early years, as she married in 1796. Betty Ring includes advertisements placed by the Brentons in the Newport Mercury, beginning in 1796. 

Frances married a cousin, Captain Silas Brown, the year after she made this embroidery. He was the town clerk of Narragansett and a veteran of the assault on Canada. They had seven children and she died at age 55 in 1822. Many other published sources include information about Frances Brenton and her family, including Thomas Cooke of Rhode Island A Genealogy by Jane Fletcher Fisk (Boxford, Massachusetts, 1987). A substantial file of research and documentation accompanies the silk embroidery. 

Worked in silk on silk, it is in excellent condition, conservation mounted into a modern, oval gold frame. 

image of plate featuring Frances Brenton's silk embroidery from American Samplers
by Ethel Stanwood Bolton and Eve Johnston Coe,
published by The Massachusetts Society of the Colonial Dames of America (Boston, 1921)

A very unusual sampler with great appeal, this features a fine eagle surmounted by stars and a banner inscribed, “Union Love Friendship.” Interestingly, another version of an eagle appears above the banner – one with a spectacular wingspan, tiny claws and an abstracted head. The sampler is signed, “Hannah Beazel’s Needle Work Wrought AD 1815,” and she stitched a letter-perfect version of a verse in the center, a version of Man’s Mortality: On the Shortness of Life by Simon Wastell (1562-1632), English Biblical scholar, metrical writer and schoolmaster.

Hannah was born in 1792, the daughter of William and Rebecca (Fell) Beazel, who lived in Webster, a town south of Pittsburgh by 23 miles. William’s grandparents were each born in Germany and emigrated circa 1760; they first met shipboard, marrying soon after their arrival. History of the County of Westmorland, Pennsylvania with Biographic Sketches of Many of the Pioneers and Prominent Men (L. H. Everts & Co, 1882), publishes much information about the family. 

Her mother, Rebecca Fell, descended from highly regarded Quakers who lived just north of Philadelphia. Rebecca’s father, Benjamin Fell (1739-1811) was “prominent in both Church and State. He took a decided stand in the cause of liberty; was a member of one of the first Conventions that assembled at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, and was the intimate friend of Gen. Washington,” as written in the Westmoreland County history volume. This family history likely influenced the patriotic theme of Hannah’s sampler. 

In 1834, Hannah married Robert Anderson; she died in 1849. Robert then headed west to Johnson County, Iowa, and the published history of that county includes a synopsis of his life, stating that he was a “very hard and earnest worker for the cause of Christianity.” 

The sampler was worked in silk on linen and is in excellent condition with some very minor weakness. It has been conservation mounted and is in a figured maple frame. 

This particularly handsome sampler offers strong aesthetic appeal, in large part because much of the needlework is organic in composition and execution. The samplermaker, Eleanor Ballinger, used cross-stitches for the lettering and the very small fruit baskets - all of the other work was accomplished in excellent surface embroidery. Adding to the appeal is the fact that Eleanor was only “Ag’d 8” when she made the sampler. 

The couplet that she stitched was written by Alexander Pope (1688-1744) and had been much published in the late 18th century. 

The sampler was found in Ireland and may have been made there. Worked in silk on wool, it’s in excellent condition. It has been conservation mounted and is in an early 19th century figured maple frame. 

An endearing sampler, this was made by Susan Bannister in 1820. She began with the alphabet, each letter worked twice, proceeded to a very good register of classic sampler motifs, and then to a quote from the writing of Dr. Isaac Watts, “Injoy [sic] the day of mirth but know there is a day of judgment too.”

A horizontal band with little trees and birds at either end is above a narrow band of a solidly stitched diamond format and her inscription is below that. 

The sampler is in very good condition with some very minor wear. It has been conservation mounted and is in a molded and black painted frame. 

 Even the underside is marquetry. 

photo of side

photo of top

photo of bottom

These came our way, and we just couldn’t resist them! A wonderful pair of plump, custom-made, down-stuffed pillows made from a late 19th century quilt in a penny rug style, with appliques and embroidery. Excellent looped fringe on four sides.

photo of pillow backs

photo of detail

A fine 18th century sampler worked in classic English format, this is signed, “Sarah Ireson ended her sampler in the twelfth year of her age July the 14 1764.” Carefully worked tiny lettering forms the many registers of verse, transcribed here below. Horizontal bands of trees, sampler borders, baskets of fruit, strawberries and little birds and stars embellish her work as well. Sarah fit a great deal onto a relatively small sampler!

Transcription: 

If you desire to worship God arise first in the morning

pray and last at light crave for his blessing no your

labours all and in distress for his assistance call 

Some men get riches yet are always poor some get no

riches yet have all things sure they that are proud

and other men disdain do often meet with hate and scorn

See how the lilies flourish white and fair

See how the ravens fed from heaven are

Then neer distrust thy god for cloth and bread

Whilst lilies flourish and the ravens fed

Zaccheus short of stature fain would see

His saviour pass and climb into a tree

If we by faith would see this glorious king

Our thoughts must mount

on contemplations wing

The Desire

From my beginning may the almighty powers blessings bestown

In never ceasing showers oh may I happy be and always 

blest of evry joy of evry wish possessed may plenty dissipate 

All worldly cares and smiling peace bless my revolving years

If all mankind would live in mutual love this would 

Would much resemble that above greatness in virtue

Only’s understood none’s truly great that is not truly good

Worked in silk on wool, the sampler is in very good condition with a number of very minor areas of weakness or loss to the wool. The needlework is in excellent condition. It has been conservation mounted and is in a molded and black painted frame.