Page 17 - Demo

13This sampler was worked in 1850 at this Brixton Hill. It is an appealing combination of extremely tight, letter-perfect stitching and a striking composition that features a prayer and, unusually, isolates and calls attention to variously phrased religious titles. This sampler serves as a legacy to the many talented needleworkers who benefited from their education at the British orphanages and institutions of the 19th century. Research has confirmed some details regarding the maker, Amelia Conway. She was the daughter of Henry James and Matilda Conway, born in London and baptized at Southwark Christ Church. Unsurprisingly, the 1851 census registered Amelia as a scholar in residence at the Royal Asylum of the St. Ann%u2019s Society. Worked in silk on wool, it is in excellent condition with minor weakness to the wool ground that has been stabilized through conservation. It is now mounted and in a molded and painted black frame.Sampler size: 17%u00bd%u201d x 13%u201d Frame size: 19%u00be%u201d x 15%u00bc%u201d Price: $4800.Amelia Conway, Royal Asylum of the St. Ann%u2019s Society, Brixton Hall, Surrey, England, 1850 (cont.)A delightful, almost miniaturized sampler, this was made by Rebecca Miller in 1828 and belongs to an important group of samplers, each of which present versions of the same handsome buildings with a distinctive roof line. Some of these samplers are illustrated in Betty Ring%u2019s Girlhood Embroidery: American Samplers and Pictorial Needlework 1650 - 1850, volume II, as figures 390, 392 and 393. There has been much speculation over the years as to the architecture of this building and whether on not the samplermakers were working from a known, specific mansion or school building, or were drawing inspiration from a print source. Mrs. Ring speculated that the design of this castle-like building was likely the result of a lingering use of early German pattern books. It seems that schoolgirls were quite taken with this structure, as renditions of it appear on samplers made from the 1780s through the 1830s. Large birds, little dogs and a pair of stylized pine trees complete Rebecca%u2019s most appealing needlework composition and a wide line border frames it well. This was worked in silk on linen and it is in excellent condition. It has been conservation mounted and is in a fine period half-column corner-block frame. Sampler size: 8%u00be%u201d x 10%u00bd%u201d Frame size: 12%u201d x 13%u00be%u201d Price: $4300.Rebecca Miller, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1828