Polly Coburn

A delightful little sampler with a quintessential New England character, this is signed, “Polly Coburn Wrought this in the 11 year of her age 1796.” The pictorial register along the bottom depicts a fine apple tree flanked by two large, stylized hills and a pair of evergreen trees. A three-sided border of diamonds worked in alternating colors provides an excellent framework for the composition. 

The samplermaker was most likely from Dracut, Massachusetts, the daughter of Reuben and Rachel Coburn. Polly, the common nickname then for Mary, was born on November 11, 1785. The Coburn family is well documented in the book, Genealogy of the Descendants of Edward Colburn / Coburn Came from England 1635 Purchased Land in “Dracut on Merrimack” 1668 Occupied His Purchase 1669, by Silas R. Coburn, (Lowell, Massachusetts, 1913) and many photocopied pages are included in the file that accompanies this sampler. 

The surface satin stitch that forms the border and the sawtooth hills is somewhat unusual. Worked in silk on linen, the sampler is in excellent condition. It has been conservation mounted into a fine, tiger maple frame. 

photo of reverse