Description:
Needlework sampler done in silk embroidery on unbleached, plain-woven linen, which has the inscription, "Marian Childs / AE 14 1820." Marion Childs (1806-1823) was the oldest child of eight of Israel Childs (1779-1821), who had moved from Deerfield to Shelburne, and Sideny Hawks Childs (1775-1855) who married in 1805. The sampler has five rows of the alphabet, the numbers 1-12, and "Shelburne / June 1820" at the end of the fifth row, which are separated by rows of decorative stiched designs; over the verse, "Now in the cold grave is Marian sleeping / Unfinished the work which her fingers began / While we finish her task amidst sorrow and weeping / We'll think of the frailty of shortlived man." and fruit and flower baskets, flowers, cross, two black-outlined white and black birds, rose bush with two white birds perched on top, two windmill shapes, two pine trees, two small dogs, and a three-sided meandering bud and vine border around the top and sides, and different border design along the bottom. According to the donor, a descendent who was named for Marion Childs, the verse, cross, and two doves were stitched onto the unfinished sampler by neighbors after Marian Childs' death in 1823 at 17 yrs. 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. Many of these samplers were made by children of prominent families. The sampler was removed from the frame 2004 or early 2005.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+63.330 |
