Terms and conditions of use
Sampler
1692
- Medium
- linen, silk (thread), metal (thread)
- Measurements
- 62.8 × 26.5 cm
- Place/s of Execution
- (England)
- Inscription
- stitched in brown silk and metal thread l.r.: 1692 / A D (in a heart-shaped lozenge)
stitched in white silk thread l.r.: A D - Accession Number
- 1112-D4
- Department
- International Fashion and Textiles
- Credit Line
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased, 1952
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Professor AGL Shaw AO Bequest - Gallery location
- Not on display
- About this work
-
For young middle-class women, embroidery was a matter of learning, discipline and moral instruction; skills honed through the making of samplers. As the first items in one’s repertoire of domestic needlework, samplers followed a common linear format. This early band sampler is a compilation of practical stitches and patterns. The top half includes decorative borders and two pre-modern cross-stitched alphabets (without J and U) of the type used to mark household and personal linen, while the lower half features common whitework patterns used for decorating shirts and smocks.
- Physical description
- Linen band sampler comprising twelve bands embroidered in coloured and white silks with formalised floral and leaf patterns and the alphabet in red-brown, green and blue. The lower half of the sampler is embroidered in white silks. Embroidery stitches: Holbein, buttonhole, cross stitch, needle lace
