A RARE WILLIAM AND MARY NEEDLEWORK QUAKER 'LETTER' SAMPLER

A RARE WILLIAM AND MARY NEEDLEWORK QUAKER 'LETTER' SAMPLER

DATED '1693'

worked with coloured silks on a linen ground in cross stitch, inscribed 'Dear Mother, my duty I remember unto the and my dear love unto my Sister. When I saw my Father last his love was unto the but I thought it long before I saw thee but I did my endeavour to rite unto the in more by they duty full daughter.', signed and dated 'SF from Wanstead, the 25 of the 5 month 1693', in a later glazed ebonised frame

14.6 x 18.6cm

Provenance

Mrs Fletcher.

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

Literature

Leigh Ashton, 'Samplers', mentions this current lot and states that it was the 'earliest known example of its kind'.

The Feller Needlework Collection: 2, p.33 for a discussion of this sampler.

Catalogue Note

This rare early letter sample was addressed to the mother of the stitcher. It can be identified as a Quaker piece because of the dating, which simply gives the date as the 25 of the 5 month ( 25th May) thus avoiding the use of pagan-named months.