Description:
Needlework sampler done in silk embroidery primarily in cross stitch on a plain linen ground, which is inscribed, "Esther A. Slate's AE 10 1824." Written on the framed back of sampler: "The work of Esther Slate Root in 1824 / Given to Margaret Esther Root Aug 12, 1918 / by / Attie Esther Root (Auntie Greene)" and "Made by Ralph Root's Grandmother / in 1824- at age of 10 years" and "This sampler was made / by Ralph C. Root's Great Grandmother / Esther A. Slate in 1824 at age of 10 years" and "For Helen M. King to / dispose of as she / may think best. / Nellie G. Root. / Jan. 20 / 1956." Esther Slate (b.1814) was the 10th of 13 children of Amos Slate (1773-1830) and Esther A. Haws Slate (1777-1857) of Bernardston who married in 1795. The sampler has four rows of the alphabet, two in script over two in block letters, across the top; over a row with two pine tress, fruit baskets, fruit tree, flowers, and a bird perched on a flower flanking a two-story house with a picket fence that extends down to the bottom row in the center; and an elephant, dog, two black-outlined white doves, and fruit basket on the bottom row. Menageries of wild animals were a popular spectacle in New England in the early 19th century. Esther Slate may have seen the elephant, Columbus, when he was displayed in Greenfield, Massachusetts, on May 20-21, 1818. Other samplers with the white dove image are known in the Deerfield area, which represent a large group of needlework made from the 1790s to the early 1830s, which are sometimes referred to as the white dove samplers of the Deerfield area. Characterized by stylized, black-outlined, paired white birds embroidered in cross stitch, fruit and flower baskets arranged in a pyramid, and three-sided border, these samplers appear to have been made at a series of schools in a widespread area of the Connecticut River Valley from Connecticut to Vermont and New Hampshire that passed on that design tradition.
Label Text:
At the age of 10, Esther Slate embroidered this sampler at an unidentified school in the Franklin County area. Among more familiar motifs characteristically seen in other examples from the region, Slate included an elephant. For this animal, she may have copied a print provided by her instructor. Slate may even have read about or seen for herself Columbus, the elephant who was brought to Greenfield, in May of 1818.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2003.48.2 |
