Featured 1778 Needlepoint Sampler

I was idly looking through some modern prints in a charity shop and found this sampler.
Not something I know anything about but it appealed to me for the effort put into it.
The verse is rather faded and tricky to read in places as the s’s are all f’s!
It was obviously framed at a later date but I’m wondering if it should be done again to preserve it?
Would it be on linen?
Thanks for looking

 

Lovely find KSW. The U.K. chazzas are being good to us atm

 

Thank you, it’s odd, the car boots are poor pickings at the moment and the charity shops are ok, then it will swap over and I won’t find anything at a charity shop for ages!

 

My grandmother worked a gazillion of these, so I can certainly appreciate this one! It's just lovely -- even if it is by Mary Smith. Perhaps her real name is on the order of Gertrude Murgatroyd, and she wanted to remain anonymous.

 

That would appear to be a course linen. If it is that old it would almost have to be linen to last that long. From what I can see it looks like the edges are hand hemmed. That would also point to age and not a reproduction of a 1778 sampler. There are a number of antique sampler facebook pages.

 

Thankyou, that is all very helpful information. I will investigate the Facebook pages, I didn’t think of that.
Interesting to know how to start to decide if this is original or reproduction. I’m very ignorant about textiles.

 

Lol

I read an article where someone found the family tree of the little girl who made their sampler. She had a very distinctive name. Sadly researching ‘Mary Smith’ is a bit of a non starter!

 

Doesn't look like a reproduction to me. I think the real deal.

Very nice find.

 

I can't read it. Assume it's a Bible verse. Which one?

Debora

 

It is a poem published in "Abraham Weatherwise's" (pseudonym of John Tobler) Almanac in 1759:

On A WATCH
Could but our Tempers move like this Machine,
Not urged by Passion, nor delay’d by Spleen;
But true to Nature’s regulating pow’er,
By virtuous Acts distinguish’d every Hour;
Then Health and Joy would follow as they ought,
The Laws of Motion, and the Laws of Thought:
Sweet Health, to pass the Laws of Moments o’er,
And everlasting Joy, when Time shall be no more.

https://theaporetic.com/Archive/kindle test2.htm

https://www.williamreesecompany.com...almanack-for-1772-by-abraham-weatherwise-gent

https://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/tobler-john/

 

Thankyou so much @2manybooks ! I’ve been squinting at it trying to work it out so you have just saved me a ton of work!

 

I got one line, and then started googling. Rabbit hole...........

 

Not the usual type of verse for a sampler, makes me think it could be original.
I’m wondering about the backing card (?) that it’s attached to, if it ought to be on something acid free?

 

I was thinking that the reds, greens and yellow are awfully bright for 1778, but it is an unusual poem to use.

The framing looks a little haphazard. At least the sampler is laying flat. In many older mounts that I have seen the edges of the sampler have been wrapped around a board and tacked to the back.

A safer mount would be to use a piece of acid-free mat board, larger than the sampler, with washed muslin stretched over it (don't use any adhesives). Then stitch the sampler to the muslin (using a curved needle). When framing, a mat or spacers should be used so that the glass does not rest directly on the sampler.

 

If one were more knowledgable about early American almanacs, one could learn quite a bit about Miss Mary Smith. There's an explanation of the poem here:

https://dokumen.pub/keeping-watch-a-history-of-american-time-067082934x-9780670829347.html

Debora

 

Do you think it was chosen to encourage Mary to put more effort into her endeavours?

 

I had been assuming it was British. How does a piece of needlepoint of this ilk get all the way to Blighty!

 

Mary Smith may well have been British. Curiously, the numbers go up to 23. I wonder if that's how old she was when she finished it.

Debora

 

It's kept its color really well if it was done in 1778. There was a big fashion for "Colonial' design in the USA in the 1920s. If it were American I'd have to wonder if it wasn't a reproduction now with age of its own. I'd have it professionally remounted on acid-free backing regardless.