Mary Rickards,

This is a beautifully made sampler with an unusual and delightful subject matter – a young boy riding a large dog flanked by wonderfully graceful mirror-image leafy trees. Details such as the smile on the dog’s face, the boy’s jauntily raised hat, the fine pair of swans, the little birds perched in the trees and the excellent row of pine trees, flower baskets and little animals across the top add to the greatly appeal of this sampler. It’s signed, “Mary Rickards Fin / ished This March 18th / 1824 Aged 13 Years,” in a wonderfully complex decorative blackletter Gothic font with ornate capitals. 

The provenance of this sampler is significant; it was in a prominent collection in England and published as figure F182, a full page in Micheal & Elizabeth Feller The Needlework Collection: 2 by Elizabeth Feller (Needleprint Publications, 2012). 

The sampler was worked in silk on wool and is in excellent condition. It has been conservation mounted and is in its original maple veneer frame with a gilt liner.