Is this a sampler?

This is coming through the auction.
I wish the camera picked the colors up better.

I love it and the fact that its that old and with a name! For me it really sets it apart!


Is this what you call a sampler?
Was she skilled for her age?

Im going to be bidding on it, what do you think a fair price for it should be?

https://new.liveauctioneers.com/item/54062635_circa-1785-framed-sampler

 

Someone (more) knowledgable about samplers sure to come along but in meantime...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bargello_(needlework)

Debora

 

Awesome! I had no idea, thanks!

 

not a sampler in the traditional sense.....and they were mostly done by children.

 

Right, I knew sampler usually had the alphabet and little pictures but this was such a small piece I didn't really know what it was called

 

It's very odd. I never saw one that just had an embroidered pattern. I'd really want to see the back before I bid.

 

I wonder if it could have done to demonstrate her skill - I know that in classes for young ladies, a sampler was sometimes akin to a final exam in needlework.
She seems a bit old to have been in a class; but perhaps this sample of her work was done as a kind of resume for a young woman seeking employment?

 

More likely a trial run with a new stitch for a larger project.

Debora

 

Certainly a possibility; but it seems unlikely she'd bother to stitch her name and the date if it was just a trial run.

 

It may have originally been intended to be made into something else, a "wallet" for her husband, maybe. They were often embroidered that way. For one reason or another it wasn't finished, and someone later framed the embroidery.

 

I looked at it closer and it appears to be stitched into burlap