Description:
Needlework sampler done in silk embroidery on plain-weave linen with the inscription, "Marietta / AE 10, 1801" in a heart-edged rectangular cartouche. Marietta Stebbins (1791-1820) was the daughter of Asa Stebbins (1767-1844) and Emelia Harvey Stebbins (1769-1841) of Deerfield, and married Dr. William H. Williams (1792-1855) in 1813. They settled permantly in Athol, Massachusetts, where she died in 1820. The sampler has a cross stitch border of vines, leaves and flowers on around two sides and the top; two rows of letters of the alphabet with designs between; and decorative elements such as two black-outlined, white doves, other birds, two pine trees, flowers, flower pot and fruit baskets, rose bush, and two dogs. The sampler is hand-hemmed approximately 1/8" on top and two sides, and the bottom has a selvedge and two rows of green cross stitch. 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. See also the sampler made by her sister, Frances Stebbins (b.1812), HD 86.087
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+86.086 |
