Mary Mellon
Reading, Berks County,
Pennsylvania, 1830
There is a significant and very appealing group of samplers worked in the 1820s and 30s by Pennsylvania German girls living in Reading, Pennsylvania. These are markedly sophisticated samplers, all highly developed with a great number of shared pictorial motifs and a demonstration of very advanced skill in the needle arts. The initials, M.T., most certainly those of the instructress, appear on several 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 owned Mary Mellon’s sampler previously and offered it in our first printed catalogue, in 1992. Needless to say, we are delighted to offer it once again. Included on the sampler are many of the important signature motifs of this group – large, double-handled vase of flowers in the center, pergola and well tower, fruit trees with unusual trunks, lawn with wonderful little birds and animals, baskets of fruit, and assorted queen’s stitched elements. These are all enclosed within a sawtooth framework and surrounded by a very good border.
Mary was born on August 29, 1820, the daughter of John and Elizabeth (Feger) Mellon. John (1791-1868) was the owner of an inn in Reading and Elizabeth (1785-1855) was the daughter of Conrad Feger, Sr., a Revolutionary War major who served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1811 to 1814 and the state Senate from 1820 to 1824.
Mary married John H. Gernant (1820-1889) and they remained in Berks County, where they had at least five children. She died in 1894 and notice of her death was published in the Reading Eagle. She is buried in Saint John’s Gernant Cemetery along with many family members.
The sampler was worked in silk on linen and is in excellent condition. It has been conservation mounted and is a fine, reproduction gold-leaf frame.