Page 28 - Demo

Maria Margaretha Breidenstein, Berks County, Pennsylvania, 180524Samplers made by Pennsylvania German girls in the late 18th and early 19th centuries are generally distinctive in nature and unlike other American samplers of the same period. We are pleased to have acquired Maria Margaretha Breidenstein%u2019s sampler, dated 1805, a fine and interesting sampler that exhibits excellent Pennsylvania German composition and motifs centered on a wonderful red bird, along with a lengthy inscription stitched in German. This translates to read, %u201cMaria Margaretha Breidenstein born the 16th of June 1787 after the gracious birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Made by MB the 17th of May 1805.%u201dChristian Breidenstein (1744-1824) was a native of Hanover, Germany and came to Pennsylvania prior to the Revolutionary War, settling in southern Berks County, near the Lancaster County line. He married Anna Rosina Messner and the family settled on 360 acres of land. Seven children were born to them; the youngest was Maria, the maker of this sampler. In 1806, Maria married Christian Bixler (1783-1852) at Forest Church, the Lutheran church in Plowville where she had been baptized, as well. They remained in the area where Christian was a farmer and operated a saw mill, and they had three children, Isaac, Sallie and Hannah. Maria died in 1861 and is buried at the churchyard cemetery. The sampler is worked in silk and linen on linen and is in excellent condition, conservation mounted into a figured maple frame with black beads.Sampler size: 11%u00bd%u201d x 11%u201d Frame size: 15%u201d x 14%u00bd%u201d Price: $5400.