Collection Highlights
Decanter and stopper
1823-1845
1936.696ab
Glass
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Museum Collections
Luce Center
Sampler
Object name
Sampler
Date
1800
Medium
Linen, silk
Dimensions
Overall: 17 3/4 x 17 1/2 in. ( 45.1 x 44.4 cm )
Description
Square linen sampler with various colors of silk thread; four-stanza poem, "The Rose," with strawberry-vine border and decorative motifs including fruit baskets and urns with flowers; stitches include cross and satin.
Credit Line
Gift of Edith F. Ebbets
Object Number
1950.307
Marks
embroidered: bottom in green floss: "Margaret Ferdon's work New York 1800"
Gallery Label
Margaret Ferdon was only six years old when she worked this sampler. The daughter of a carpenter, she was raised in Brooklyn and Manhattan and married James Chivvis in the city's Dutch Reformed Church in 1814.
Margaret's verse, "The Rose," was first published in 1715 in "Divine and Moral Songs for Children" by Isaac Watts (1674-1748). Works by Watts, a prolific and influential English minister, were popular for over a century after his death. Reprinted numerous times by New York City printers, "Divine and Moral Songs" was a popular source for schoolgirl sampler verse.
Due to ongoing research, information about this object is subject to change.
