Lot Essay
...why mayn't I go to college too, for my father says one Jenny Cameron put on a jacket and breeches and was a good soldier, and why may not I also and live at college?
(Alethea Stiles to Ezra Stiles, October 7, 1754)
During the 18th century, a young woman's needlework reflected not only the supreme accomplishment of her education, but also her eligibility and suitability for marriage. It is not surprising that the ambitious Alethea Stiles, who wrote the above letter in 1754 to her cousin, Ezra Stiles, subsequently President of Yale College 1777-1795, wrought this exceptional needlework of a reclining shepherdess. This work, signed ALETHEA STILES 1762, is important not only because it reflects the skill and life of an affluent seventeen year old woman in eighteenth-century America, but also it reads as a testament to woman's education of its time.
Alethea Stiles, born in 1745 in Woodstock, Connecticut, was the daughter of Reverend Abel Stiles and Alethea Robinson of Lebanon. Because of her affluent background, Alethea was encouraged and expected to excel in her education, and most likely was sent to boarding school in Boston where she worked this needlework. In a letter dated 1755 to her cousin, Ezra Stiles, Alethea age ten, wrote , "While I was at Lebanon, I was busy with my needle and did but little reading and writing. Since I came home my tender father helps me to my books." The letter continues to describe the fall of Rome. Alethea Stiles was admitted into the Woodstock church on May 30, 1762. On October 29, 1764 she married unhappily a young lawyer student Hadlock Marcy, a Yale graduate of 1761, and with whom she had one child, Sophia Marcy.
The subject of this needlework was purposely chosen by schoolmistresses not only to depict courtship, but also to extend their students' education to manners and courting techniques. Several known needleworks exist which were inspired by the same print source including one by Susannah Heath, c. 1774, illustrated in Betty Ring's Girlhood Embroidery (New York, 1993), p. 45; a second by Hannah Goddard illustrated in The Magazine Antiques (July, 1941), p. 30; a third by Esther Stoddard circa 1750 and illustrated in The Great River: Art & Society of the Connecticut Valley, 1635-1820 (The Wadsworth Atheneum: Hartford, 1985)p. 399-401;a fourth by Priscilla Rice from Sturbridge illustrated Skinner's sale 1014, January 4, 198, lot 245. Other examples are in the collections of the Concord Museum and Historic Deerfield.
This needlework is an important addition to the Boston "Fishing Lady Pictures" school of needlework because it is signed and dated, and retains such exceptional colors. The term "Fishing Lady Pictures" coined by Nancy Graves Cabot in her article "The Fishing Lady and Boston Common", Antiques (July 1941) p. 28-31, refers to specific needleworks wrought by young women from Boston boarding schools depicting not only a woman fishing with a suitor by her side, but also a variety of pastoral scenes. The second most commonly found is the reclining shepherdess.
For further information regarding "The Fishing Lady" see: Betty Ring's Girlhood Embroidery (New York, Alfred Knopf, 1993), p. 45-54; Nancy Graves Cabot, "The Fishing Lady and Boston Common" Antiques (July 1941), p. 28-31; Helen Bowen, "The Fishing Lady and Boston Common" Antiques (August 1923), p. 70-73.
(Alethea Stiles to Ezra Stiles, October 7, 1754)
During the 18th century, a young woman's needlework reflected not only the supreme accomplishment of her education, but also her eligibility and suitability for marriage. It is not surprising that the ambitious Alethea Stiles, who wrote the above letter in 1754 to her cousin, Ezra Stiles, subsequently President of Yale College 1777-1795, wrought this exceptional needlework of a reclining shepherdess. This work, signed ALETHEA STILES 1762, is important not only because it reflects the skill and life of an affluent seventeen year old woman in eighteenth-century America, but also it reads as a testament to woman's education of its time.
Alethea Stiles, born in 1745 in Woodstock, Connecticut, was the daughter of Reverend Abel Stiles and Alethea Robinson of Lebanon. Because of her affluent background, Alethea was encouraged and expected to excel in her education, and most likely was sent to boarding school in Boston where she worked this needlework. In a letter dated 1755 to her cousin, Ezra Stiles, Alethea age ten, wrote , "While I was at Lebanon, I was busy with my needle and did but little reading and writing. Since I came home my tender father helps me to my books." The letter continues to describe the fall of Rome. Alethea Stiles was admitted into the Woodstock church on May 30, 1762. On October 29, 1764 she married unhappily a young lawyer student Hadlock Marcy, a Yale graduate of 1761, and with whom she had one child, Sophia Marcy.
The subject of this needlework was purposely chosen by schoolmistresses not only to depict courtship, but also to extend their students' education to manners and courting techniques. Several known needleworks exist which were inspired by the same print source including one by Susannah Heath, c. 1774, illustrated in Betty Ring's Girlhood Embroidery (New York, 1993), p. 45; a second by Hannah Goddard illustrated in The Magazine Antiques (July, 1941), p. 30; a third by Esther Stoddard circa 1750 and illustrated in The Great River: Art & Society of the Connecticut Valley, 1635-1820 (The Wadsworth Atheneum: Hartford, 1985)p. 399-401;a fourth by Priscilla Rice from Sturbridge illustrated Skinner's sale 1014, January 4, 198, lot 245. Other examples are in the collections of the Concord Museum and Historic Deerfield.
This needlework is an important addition to the Boston "Fishing Lady Pictures" school of needlework because it is signed and dated, and retains such exceptional colors. The term "Fishing Lady Pictures" coined by Nancy Graves Cabot in her article "The Fishing Lady and Boston Common", Antiques (July 1941) p. 28-31, refers to specific needleworks wrought by young women from Boston boarding schools depicting not only a woman fishing with a suitor by her side, but also a variety of pastoral scenes. The second most commonly found is the reclining shepherdess.
For further information regarding "The Fishing Lady" see: Betty Ring's Girlhood Embroidery (New York, Alfred Knopf, 1993), p. 45-54; Nancy Graves Cabot, "The Fishing Lady and Boston Common" Antiques (July 1941), p. 28-31; Helen Bowen, "The Fishing Lady and Boston Common" Antiques (August 1923), p. 70-73.