Embroidered sampler
A 1735 sampler stitched with a line stating that Mary Pearce made it with her needle, plus birds, trees and flowers; alphabet and pictures share one cloth. Full commentary ↓
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Embroidered sampler is a textile by Mary Pearce (1735) in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It measures 46.4 × 38.1 cm.
In the pictureSeveral rows of alphabet are embroidered in red and brown thread on linen, followed by the maker's name and a verse. Below are two trees, birds, a flower basket and small animals scattered about, with red zigzag bands dividing the sections. The colors are mainly red, green and yellow.
BackgroundA line in the manner of "Mary Pearce made this" was a convention of 18th-century English samplers, and stitching her own name was a girl's first experience of signing a work. The layout, with alphabet practice at the top and free pictures at the bottom, is typical of the period; compared with the 1727 band sampler on this site, it shows how the share of pictures grew within a few years.
Puzzle tipThe rows of letters and the picture sections are divided by red bands, so fit the band pieces first. Place the tree and bird pieces at the bottom, and position the letter pieces by the spacing of the rows. Frame the border with the dark pieces of the frame. 100 pieces work well.
- Artist
- born ca. 1722
- Classification
- Textiles
- Medium
- Embroidered silk on linen
- Dimensions
- 46.4 x 38.1 cm
- Credit line
- Gift of Barbara Schiff Sinauer, 1984
Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art ↗
Stories about this work
- From 1735 to 1823: Five Signed Embroidered Samplers and One Building
From 13-year-old Mary Pearce to 6-year-old Harriott Cates, five English embroidered samplers spanning 90 years, plus one exception that stitched a building instead of a name.
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