Alice Ann Marsh, Hartford, Windsor, Vermont, 1820

Vermont schoolgirl samplers are considered the rarest and most prized of all the New England states.

They are so scarce that Betty Ring did not even devote a page to them in Volume 1 of her important sampler book, considered to be the Bible of American samplers, Girlhood Embroidery, while all other New England samplers were extensively studied and chronicled in her book.

This Windsor County Vermont family sampler is not only in extraordinarily vibrant condition, but it also features a captivating visual impact format highlighted by and exuberant cornucopia surrounded by oversized flowers and a charming verse as well.  The verse reads as follows:

PITY

No radiant pearl which crested Fortune wears

No gem that twinkling hangs from Beauty s ears

Not the bright stars which night s blue arch adorn

Nor rising sun that gild the vernal morn

Shine with such lustre as the tear that breaks

For others woe down virtue s manly cheek.

The overall presentation combines both sophistication and advanced needlework skill with folk artistry.  The Marsh family was from Hartford Township in Windsor County, Vermont and the sampler was worked by 15 year old Alice Ann Marsh in 1820.  Alice Ann was the seventh of eight children born to Abraham Marsh and Mary Polly Dutton.  It appears that Alice Ann never married as she is listed in the 1850 thru 1880 Census under her maiden name. In 1850 she was living with her mother in Vermont and in 1880 she was still living there, in Norwich Township, after her mother s death in 1851. (Her father died just three years after her birth, so her mother was really the only parent she ever knew.)

The sampler is large (approx. 20 x 23 ) and impressive, combining visual impact with wonderful condition, both of the homespun linen as well as the needlework.  It is conservation mounted on acid free board and framed in a burled wood frame.

R10A01599
0013

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