Annie G. Penney, Finchville, Shelby County, Kentucky

Documented samplers from Kentucky are extraordinarily rare . . . in fact, most studies written on samplers rarely contain even one example.  This sampler, worked by Ann G. Penney in 1846 when she was 12 years old is a real folk art gem and unlike anything I've seen before.  The inscription alone is pricless: "MISS ANNIE PENNEY AT FINCHVILLE DURING THE SUMMER OF 1846".......add to that the quirky oversized vowels and coded letter sequence, and finally the rare raised- work stitchery in the bird, butterfly, and floral bouquet at top..........all of it dovetails to create a very visual and  folky Southern schoolgirl sampler..... (Finchville is in Shelby County between Louisville and Lexington, Near Shelbyville.)

Ann Penney was the daughter of James and Mary Penney of Boyle Co. Kentucky and was the oldest of 9 children born to the couple.  She married Joseph Tewmey,  in 1851 and the 1860 census shows her and her physician husband and two children living in Perryville, Kentucky also located in Boyle County.

The verse is traditional American Schoolgirl:

When youth's soft seasons are all o'er
And scenes of childhood charm no more,
  My riper years with joy shall see,
The proof of childhood industry.

 The sampler is worked in wool on linen and conserved on acid free. It is in excellent condition, 15 inches x 15 inches (sight) and 19inches x 19" framed.

 R11H150502
0058

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