#6859                                                                                                      Sarah Maria Gano Smith Sampler               

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         Providence, Rhode Island

17 " x 17".    20 " x 20 " including a lovely 19th century bird's eye maple  frame.  Sarah Maria  was born in Providence, Rhode Island on August 15, 1818 so she was 14 years old when she stitched her lovely sampler.  Her parents were Waterman Smith and Sarah Corey.  Her ancestors must have been among the earliest settlers in Rhode Island, as we were able to trace the maternal side of her family back to 1636 in Rhode Island.  The stunning floral border is worked in several different stitches and it flows with graceful beauty around the alphabets and verse.          
  

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Her verse reads:

" There's not a tint that decks the rose
Or paints the lily fair,
Nor een the humblest flower that grows
But heaven has placed it there".

She signed her sampler,  "Sarah Maria Gano Smith   1832".                                                                                                   

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The silks retain a beautiful sheen and have lovely vibrant color.   The only thread loss is in the inner border surround- ing the alphabets, and that is fairly minor.   There are no holes in the fabric and only a bit of darkening in the alphabet and the upper right border areas.    The sampler has been mounted on acid-free board.                                                                                                                                                                                                              $2750.00

                                                                             #6922                                                                                                        Eudoxya Aguyar Sampler              

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  Rare Commemorative with Book

19 " x 13 3/4".    23 " x 17 1/2 " including a modern frame.   This amazing Spanish sampler commemorates an event that occured in 1826 in France.   Muhammad Ali, a high minister in Egypt at the time, wanted to go to war against Greece. And he was hoping to do so without the interference of France or Eng- land.  So, in the time honored tradition of international politics, he decided to send each of them a bribe.   He ordered a parade of exotic animals to be sent as gifts to France and England.          
  

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The animals, including monkeys, giraffes, antelopes and several others, had to be walked down the Nile and loaded onto a ship.   They sailed across the Mediteranian and landed in Marsaille.   They then had to be walked 500 miles to Paris to be presented to Charles X of France.   The gir- affe was the only animal to survive the journey.   The event was enormously celebrated all over France and the giraffe became the darling of the nation.  Women began wearing very tall hairstyles and clothing with giraffe spots.  Charles X had a two story stable built for the giraffe and his handlers.   This rare sampler commorates that event.

Underneath the giraffe is the word, " Gyrafa".   The sampler is signed, " Hecho Por Eudoxy Aguyar Y Medyna El Ano 1834".  The event is documented in the book  Zarafa by Michael Allin which is included with the sampler.                                                                                                  

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There are a few holes in the fabric, two in the left border area, one just under the branches of the right tree and another just above the same tree.  There is also a bit of thread loss and some minor staining.   But the sampler has been mounted on a matching piece of linen so the holes are are not very noticable.                                                                                                                                                                                                                $2650.00

                                                                               #6942                                                                                                    Sarah Alexander Sampler               

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Rare Baltimore Maryland Sampler

17 " x 16 1/2".    21 1/4" x 21 " including a modern frame.  Sarah was born "about 1820" in Baltimore, Maryland. South- ern samplers are quite rare and very difficult to find, so Sarah's lovely needlework is quite special.  She stitched her parents names( James and Frances), and the names of her brothers and sisters as well as Mary Ann Banning, who was probably her teacher.   The siblings listed are:  Margaret, Ninian, Catherine, Martha Jane, Sarah, John Andrew and Rebecca.     The names are surrounded with a gorgeous basket of meandering flowers and an outside border of queen stitched strawberries.   
  

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Her verse reads:

"Jesus permit thy gracious name to stand
As the first efforts of an infants hand
And as her fingers o'er the canvass move
Engage her tender heart to seek thy love
With thy dear children may she have a part
And write thy name thyself upon her heart".

Her signature reads: "Sarah Alexanders Sampler  Worked by her in the tenth year of her age".                                                                                                   

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There is some staining in the signature area as well as a few holes in the fabric.   The holes are top center, the left outside edge and the signature area.   But the silks are vibrant and still show a nice sheen.   The only thread loss in is the alphabet area at the top.  The sampler has been mounted on acid-free board.                                                                                                                         $2450.00

                                                                         #6931                                                                                                      Eliza Slack Quaker Sampler               

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     Attleboro, Massachusetts

26 1/4 " x 22 1/4".    27 3/4 " x 23 3/4 " including a vintage frame.   Eliza was born in Attleboro, Massachusetts in 1800.   Her parents were Samuel Slack and Lucy Miller.   Samuel's ancestors trace back to as early as 1606 in Massachusetts, so the family must have been among the earliest settlers.   Eliza's sampler is a lovely example of a classically Quaker sampler.   All of the motifs are typically Quaker as is the black block lettering and the verse.          
 

 

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Her verse reads:

" Jesus permit thy gracious name to stand
As the first effort of my youthful hand.
And while my fingers o'er this canvass move
Engage my tender heart to seek thy love.
With thy children let me bear a part
And write thy name thyself upon my heart".

She signed her sampler,  "Eliza Slack's Work   1822".                                                                                                   

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While the silks are vibrant and they still retain quite a bit of their sheen, there are several holes in the fabric.   The most noticable of these are in the verse and signature areas and along the top edge of the fabric.  The sampler has been mounted on acid-free board.                                                                                                                                                                                                              $2375.00

                                                                         #6847                                                                                                18th. Century Dutch Sampler
                                            

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12 " x 17 1/4".    15 1/2" x 20 5/8 " including a 19th century bird's eye maple frame.    I am going to say that this fabulous sampler is circa 1700 - 1730, although I think it might actually be a bit earlier.   The stitcher did put two sets of initials inside the cartouche, but she did not sign her sampler.   The initials are "O.G.B. and A.G.Q.". There is a great deal going on in this wonderful and very early sampler, and most of it is biblical in origin.  Of particular beauty is our stitcher's rendition of Adam & Eve sitting under the apple tree.  The tree and Adam & Eve are quite realistic and very beautiful.  You can actually see Eve handing the apple to Adam.   And they are surrounded by several different types of animals in the Garden of Eden.
 

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One exceptionally unusual motif is a ship that I think is meant to be Noah's Ark.  There are also a man and a woman standing at a well, an incredible phoenix (or maybe it's a griffin), the spies of Canaan, the crucifixion, Moses holding two tablets, and a man climbing some stairs up into a windmill.  But, by far the most unusual motif on this beautiful sampler is what I believe to be a very realisitic monkey.  This is not the "spinning monkey" that is often found on Dutch samplers.  This one is a fairly large, standing monkey. I have never seen anything like it.  And the stitches on this wonderful sampler are exceptionally tiny, making this a bea- utiful piece of needlework history.                                                                                                                     

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The sampler is showing a fair amount of thread loss. This is most noticable in the band just under the last alphabet. But, Moses' tablets have also almost faded away.  There are also some holes in the fabric.  The large ones are in the bottom center border area and at the top just above the letters "R & S".  There are also a few very small holes mostly in the apple tree area.   The sampler has been mounted on acid-free board.                                                                                                                                             $2175.00

                                                                         #6774                                                                                                Emma Elizabeth Smith Sampler
                                         Atkinson, Henry County, Illinois
                                                          

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16" x 16".   18 1/2" x 18 1/2 " including a modern frame.   Emma Elizabeth Smith was born on May 5, 1857 in Atkinson, Illinois.  That makes this an exceptionally rare sampler.   Emma's parents were John Wesley Smith and Sarah Ann Rummell.  She married Samuel Kiner in December of 1874, and George Edwin Perkins on July 3, 1891.   She was buried in Geneseo, Illinois so she lived her entire life in Illinois.   Emma worked her sampler at the age of 10.   She included an alphabet, numbers, verses, florals, birds, baskets of fruit and a charming pictoral.  There is a lady in a striped dress standing in her garden filled with flowers, birds, dogs and a hillside leading up to her house.  She signed her lovely sampler " Emma Elizabeth Smith 1867."

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Emma's verse reads:
Let all thy Converse be sincere;
Thy Conscience as the Noon Day clear;
Think how the all seeing God thy ways,
And all thy secret thoughts surveys.

Virtue's the chiefest Beauty of the Mind
The noblest Ornament of human kind
Virtue's our Safeguard and our guiding star
That stirs up Reason when our Senses err"                                                                                           

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There is a fair amount of thread loss in Emma's sampler. Most of the losses are in the alphabet and the border.   There is also a cut in the fabric along the right border as well as some darkening to the center of the sampler.  But, in spite of its losses, this is still an exceptionally rare and special piece of needlework.  It has been mounted on acid-free board.                                                                         $1625.00