Buttonhole Sampler

This is an extremely fine little sampler which demonstrates the art of making buttonholes. Along with darning, this skill was one of the more practical techniques that samplermakers learned. Highly refined whitework decoration extends down in two vertical rows with an assortment of further whitework surrounding the eight buttonholes. Three stylized floral devices along with the maker's monogram and the date are topped with a coronet, all worked in very tight cross-stitches.

There is significant provenance to the sampler as it was in the Emma-Henriette Schiff von Suvero Collection. This collection included a large, fascinating group of European and American samplers. Emma was born in 1873 in Vienna, the daughter of an influential and wealthy Jewish banker. After her death, her collection remained with her family until it was confiscated by the Nazi regime in 1939. The entire collection was placed in the Staatliche Kunstgewerbemuseum, Vienna, now known as the Museum Fur Angewandte Kunst (MAK). These items remained at the museum until 2003 when the Austrian Government returned all of the collections to the heirs of Emma-Henriette Schiff von Suvero. The samplers were then sold at auction in London and many joined private and museum collections at that time. This has recently been in the collection of noted textile conservator, France Faile. 

Worked in silk on linen, the sampler is in excellent condition and has been conservation mounted into a molded and painted frame.