Elizabeth Cherry

Needlework maps were produced in England in the late 18th and early 19th centuries as an advanced schoolroom exercise, combining lessons in geography and the needle arts. These were ambitious projects, as the samplermakers were expected to pay exceptional attention to detail.  

Elizabeth Cherry made this excellent sampler in 1786, with names of counties, towns, seas and oceans worked with tiny and precise stitches and the outlines and boundaries in variously colored cross -stitch. Notably, Elizabeth filled in everywhere where that water appears - ocean, sea, bay and channel - with fine brick stitches in lustrous silk, creating an excellent texture. A fine border of an organic vine of flowers and leaves frames the composition well. 

The sampler was worked in silk on wool and is in excellent condition. While not fully conservation mounted, the glass is UV filter. The fact that it remains in its outstanding carved and gold-leaf oval frame adds to the strong appeal of this sampler.