AN EARLY VICTORIAN NEEDLWORK ASYLUM SAMPLER

AN EARLY VICTORIAN NEEDLWORK ASYLUM SAMPLER

BY MARY HOOKER

worked with polychrome silks on a fine linen ground with cross, half-cross and satin stitch, depicting the grand facade of Ticehurst Asylum, in Sussex, titled, with trees, baskets of fruit and urns of flowers with a large cat with detailed whiskers, with a verse and signed and dated 'Mary Hooker Aged 10 Years April The Third 1845', in a glazed bird's eye maple frame

31 x 36.5cm

Provenance

Upper Slaughter Manor, The Collection of Micheál and Elizabeth Feller.

Literature

The Feller Needlework Collection: 2, p.65 for a discussion of this sampler.

Catalogue Note

Ticehurst Hospital was opened in 1792 as a private asylum by Samuel Newington and was managed by doctors of the Newington family. By the mid-19th century it attracted a very wealthy clientele.