Featured Old Sampler - need genealogy help

Good that it is authentic, age wise. I'm glad I brought up the subject, so people would comment.

 

I do a lot of genealogical research. It can be fun to try to narrow down who it might be, but unless you can tie a location or some other piece of data to this, just having a name of the stitcher and the date when the piece was made is not going to be enough to identify the person. There are very few names that are held by only one person during a particular time frame. Even very unusual names sometimes run in families, with more than one cousin sharing the same name. It can be fun to look, though.

 

The spelling is definitely British English, if that helps. Saviour, not savior.

 

Yes, British. The quotation was originally British.

Debora

 

Any little bit of information could help!

 

This may be a definition thing. As far as I can tell, cross-stitch is the type of stitch used here, and AFAIK, that and other stitches can be used on either Needlepoint or Embroidery. This isn't Embroidery, so doesn't that mean it is needlepoint? Wikipedia says needlepoint is counted thread embroidery stitched through a stiff open weave canvas, which is what this linen weave looks like to me. They also say that typically needlepoint covers the whole canvas, and this doesn't, with stitches used only for the words. But it sounds like it is still needlepoint even if the background isn't filled in?

No one mentioned how fine the weave is - at 60 threads per inch would this be referred to as petit point?

She would actually make sense, esp. being English. She would have been 16 at the time this was made. And the fine weave does lead me to believe that this was likely done by someone young and not someone too old to see the weave. Early death of both parents could steer someone towards religion. That said, without knowing more about her (like whether she followed that Religious Tract Society religion you found), no way of knowing for sure. Very sad to see she died at 18.

Since everyone agrees this isn't a sampler, but then what do we call this? And would this appeal to sampler collectors due to its age - or is it pretty much worthless?

 

IMO- it is a combo of cross stitching (meaning some X stitches) and needlepoint stitches (bottom row left to top row right) or vise versa depending on preference. She has both plus if looked at carefully probably several different types of needle working stitching depending where the letters went she did what made it look right to her. The backing is not monks cloth or burlap. I do think it’s woven linen or a linen content. I do think the thread is natural vegetable Dyed. Maybe from the same fabric as the backing unwoven and dyed. Might have been a piece of clothing that was thread bare in spots and repurposed. I’m not a professional in sampler work. But You may want to google “ Thread arts in 1833”

 

..and judging from the quality of her needlework, her sin was one of intemperance.