Lot 33
33
A SILK-ON-LINEN NEEDLEWORK SAMPLER

Details
A SILK-ON-LINEN NEEDLEWORK SAMPLER
LYDIA SWAIN, NANTUCKET, MASSACHUSETTS, DATED 1803

Worked in teal, light blue, gold, red and cream silk threads in a variety of stitches including cross and satin, and centering five horizontal registers enclosed by a satin-stitched sawtooth border and comprised of three cursive and plain alphabetical registers above the cross-stitched verse flanked by butterflies, "Be my ambition only to excel In the blest art, the art of living well Who this attains bids sin and sorrow cease With hope looks heavenward and shall die in Peace" over the cross-stitched identification, "Lydia Swain Nantucket March 1803 Aged 11 Years" above three elaborately wrought stylized flowers separated by scrolling vertical flower buds capped by birds, the whole enclosed by a meandering floral and foliate border--13½in. high, 12in. wide

Lot Essay

A sampler probably wrought by a relative of Lydia Swain in 1805 is illustrated in Carpenter, Charles and Mary Grace, The Arts and Crafts of Nantucket, plate XXXV.

A related sampler with comparably designed central scrolling lozenge probably wrought in the same Nantucket school is illustrated in Ring, Betty, Girlhood Embroidery: American Samplers and Pictorial Needlework, 1650 - 1850, (New York, 1993), vol. I, p. 151, fig. 168. This sampler is inscribed, "Sally Barker is my name At 12 years old i mark the same 1800," and is one of only four known samplers by this school.