Collection Online
Sampler

Sampler
1692

Medium
linen, silk (thread), metal (thread)

Measurements
62.8 × 26.5 cm

Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased, 1952

Gallery location
Not on display

Download
 

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.

Artwork Details

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

This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Professor AGL Shaw AO Bequest