Mary Smith Riddick

Schoolgirls occasionally worked their samplers on green linsey-woolsey fabric and the great majority of these were made in New England. While there are some known to have been made in Virginia, they are quite rare and we are pleased to be able to offer this one. 

Signed, “Mary Smith Riddick’s Sampler Aged 10 years July AD 1820,” the sampler offers a handsome composition and excellent needlework. The large uppercase alphabet was accomplished in the eyelet stitch and the band just above that was worked in the queen’s stitch. Along the top of the sampler, Mary worked two very fine flower branches flanking a very appealing couplet – “Altho in life we thistles meet / We oft discover roses sweet.” 

Mary Smith Riddick was born on March 11, 1810, to Edward and Emma (Smith) Riddick of Richmond, Virginia; she was the eldest of their five children. According to Henrico County Records, in 1837, she married William Holt Richardson, a successful tailor and merchant and they had several children. Mary died in 1876 and is buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, one of the city’s most important burying grounds, along with many family members. 

The sampler was worked in silk on linsey-woolsey and is in excellent condition with some very minor weakness. It has been conservation mounted and is in a fine mahogany frame.