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"Boston Band" style sampler worked in silk on linen. This polychromatic sampler is a long rectancle with alphabetic lines separated by bands of decorative embroidery on the upper portion. Beneath these is a scene with a central leafy tree flanked by flower-filled baskets, birds and the inscription (split into two sections, one on each side). Alphabets: #1 missing J,U; an extra "A"; #2 missing "J", "U"; an extra "A"; #3 missing "J", "U"; an extra "A"; cross stitch, satin stitch
samplers (embroidery)
needlework (visual works)
linen (material)
silk (textile)
cross-stitching
embroidering
Sampler
This sampler is one of the earliest of a group of nine made in the North End of Boston in the "Boston band" style. The earliest versions, like Sarah Hill's, have a tree with baskets at the bottom. By around 1739 the teacher choose to replace the baskets with images of Adam and Eve. See Pamela Parmal "Women's Work: Embroidery in Colonial Boston" (Boston: MFA Publications, 2012) for more information.
""Sarah Hill/Ended This/sampler in/The Twe/lve year/of her age/1737"" (Embroidered)
Hill, Sarah, 1725- (Embroiderer)
18 x 8 (HxW) (inches)
Museum Accession
1981.10
1737 (One of the two earliest made in this style.)
Massachusetts (United States)
Boston (Suffolk county, Massachusetts)
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