Ann Abernatha,
United States, 1817
A very fine sampler with an unusually free-form spirit to it, this is signed “Ann abernatha Was Born in the year Of our Lord 1806 And Done this work in the year of our Lord 1817.”
The pictorial register of a fruit basket with bunches of grapes springing out of it, two large butterflies, a bird on a sprig of berries and a wonderful creature of some sort provides animation and whimsy. Ann lavished much imagination and needlework on this praiseworthy and unusual border.
The two-line couplet above reads, “Oh that the Sons of men Would Learn To Be wise and Learn Eternal Happiness to prize,” and was published in London in 1764 and then in the colonies.
The sampler was worked in silk on linen and is in excellent condition. It has been conservation mounted and is in a molded, black painted frame.