Marking samplers, frequently consisting of little more than alphabets, perhaps a numerical progression, and sometimes an occasional verse were often a young girl's first attempt at samplermaking. It is therefore a bit surprising that Elizabeth was actually 14 years old at the time she worked this piece. But, in the world of samplers there are many surprises and each piece is individual as the person who made them.

Despite the square shape, which would be typical of samplers from this period, the horizontal bands and lack of a border connect this sampler to an earlier work in an earlier time. Perhaps Elizabeth copied the format from a sampler made by her mother or perhaps an older sister which was often the case.

Whatever, it is apparent that our 14 year old seamstress was adept at the needle as evidenced in the variety of stitches she used in her sampler. Notable is the fact that while she included four alphabets, all three upper-case alphabets were done in the same style. It is signed, Elizabeth Wright aged 14 Dec 21ft 1839.

The bottom quarter of the sampler reflects a "mirror image" format with heavily laden apple trees, bows, chevrons and two birds of enormous proportions flanking a basket of fruit. This fine little sampler utilizes predominate colors of rust red, green, and gold and is very pleasing to the eye.
Size is 11-1/2" x 12"
$2800.00
F5D280541

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