.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Meticulously worked in a vibrant textile palette, this needlework picture is one of five known surviving examples, all representing Liberty as a young woman with ringleted hair, wearing a fashionable and Classical-inspired gown, and holding both a cornucopia and pole topped with a liberty cap. The symbol of Liberty in a female form in decorative works was a fasionable way for Americans to embrace patriotisim in their homes. A most closely realted needlework is in the collection of the American Folk Art Museum, and is illustrated in Stacy Hollander, American Anthem (New York, 2001), pp. 40 and 303-304, Plate 20. For a discussion of the other three examples from this group, see Betty Ring, Girlhood Embroidery: American Samplers & Pictorial Needlework, 1650-1850, vol. I (New York, 1993), p. 161.
Abby Wright (1774-1842) established her school for girls in South Hadley, Massachusetts in 1803. When she married in 1809, Abby relinquished her duties to her half-sister, Sophia Goodrich, but remained closely involved with the school until it closed in 1811. During its brief existence, the school produced a well-documented and distinctive record of needlework. Quintessential characteristics of these needleworks include silver metallic threads and paint decoration on silk. In addition, works from this school are also distinguished by the technique of surrounding small shrubs with tiny seed stitches to define their shape against a background embroidered in similar colors.
Techniques for silk pictures differed but the design was customarily sketched on the silk and then worked; the teacher may have designed the piece herself or she might engage a professional painter. The very close similarities between this example and the other five needlework pictures suggests that the outlines for each may have been worked from a print source, which scholarship indicates was a common practice.
This needlework picture was part of the furnishings of the Hancock Inn in Hancock, New Hampshire and was acquired by the family of the consignor when they purchased the inn in 1963. The previous owner of the Inn, Martha Genung Stearns, with her husband Foster Waterman Stearns, was an aficionado of early American needlework and the author of Homespun and Blue: A Study of American Crewel Embroidery (New York, 1940). The needlework was included among the furnishings of the Inn, which was sold when the Stearns died. Alternatively, the needlework may have had a history with the Inn, which was built in 1789 by Noah Wheeler. Wheeler's daughter, Sarah, was born that same year and was of an appropriate age to have attended school at Abby Wright's establishment. Sarah married Jedidiah Fox, who later assumed control and management of the Inn.
Abby Wright (1774-1842) established her school for girls in South Hadley, Massachusetts in 1803. When she married in 1809, Abby relinquished her duties to her half-sister, Sophia Goodrich, but remained closely involved with the school until it closed in 1811. During its brief existence, the school produced a well-documented and distinctive record of needlework. Quintessential characteristics of these needleworks include silver metallic threads and paint decoration on silk. In addition, works from this school are also distinguished by the technique of surrounding small shrubs with tiny seed stitches to define their shape against a background embroidered in similar colors.
Techniques for silk pictures differed but the design was customarily sketched on the silk and then worked; the teacher may have designed the piece herself or she might engage a professional painter. The very close similarities between this example and the other five needlework pictures suggests that the outlines for each may have been worked from a print source, which scholarship indicates was a common practice.
This needlework picture was part of the furnishings of the Hancock Inn in Hancock, New Hampshire and was acquired by the family of the consignor when they purchased the inn in 1963. The previous owner of the Inn, Martha Genung Stearns, with her husband Foster Waterman Stearns, was an aficionado of early American needlework and the author of Homespun and Blue: A Study of American Crewel Embroidery (New York, 1940). The needlework was included among the furnishings of the Inn, which was sold when the Stearns died. Alternatively, the needlework may have had a history with the Inn, which was built in 1789 by Noah Wheeler. Wheeler's daughter, Sarah, was born that same year and was of an appropriate age to have attended school at Abby Wright's establishment. Sarah married Jedidiah Fox, who later assumed control and management of the Inn.