An American sampler: "Margaret Barnholt her sampler done in the twelth [sic] year of her age 1831".English band sampler featuring 'boxers', c.1650
A needlework sampler is a piece of embroidery or cross-stitching produced as a 'specimen of achievement',[1] demonstration or a test of skill in needlework.[2][3] It often includes the alphabet, figures, motifs, decorative borders and sometimes the name of the person who embroidered it and the date. The word sampler is derived from the Latinexemplum, which means 'example'.[4]
The earliest sampler extant is a spot sampler, i.e. one having randomly scattered motifs, of the Nazca culture in Peru[5] formerly in the Museum of Primitive Art, New York City. It is estimated to date from ca. 200 BCE –300 CE and is worked in cotton and wool pattern darning on a woven cotton ground. It has seventy-four figures of birds, plants and mythological beings.[6]
Coptic sampler fragments[7] of silk on linen in double running stitch and pattern darning have been found in Egyptian burial grounds of 400–500 CE. These are pattern samplers having designs based on early Christian symbols.[8]
Samplers were known to be used by stitchers in Europe as early as the beginning of the 16th century, although none that early have been found. A collection of fifty dechados (samplers) was listed in the 1509 inventory of the possessions of Queen Joanna (Juana I, 1479–1555) of Castile (Spain). They were described as stitchery and deshilado (drawn thread work), some in silk and others in gold thread. At the time of the inventory they were in the care of her chamberlain Diego de Rivera and his son Alonso, but they have all disappeared.[9]
Early mentions of samplers in text include Skelton (1469-1529),[10] and Shakespeare (1564-1616).[11]
The oldest surviving European samplers were made in the 16th and 17th centuries. As there were few pre-printed patterns available for needleworkers, a stitched model was needed. Whenever a needleworker saw a new and interesting example of a stitching pattern, they would quickly sew a small sample of it onto a piece of cloth – their 'sampler'.[12] The patterns were sewn randomly onto the fabric as a reference for future use, and the needleworker would collect extra stitches and patterns throughout their lifetime.
The first printed pattern book Furm oder Modelbüchlein was published by Johann Schönsperger the Younger of Augsburg in 1523, but it was not easily obtainable and a sampler was the most common form of reference available to many women. Pattern books[13] were widely copied and issued by other publishers. Some are still available in reprint today.[14]
The earliest English dated surviving sampler, housed in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, was made by Jane Bostocke who included her name and the date 1598 in the inscription. Stitched with silk and metal thread on linen it has pictorial figures above with border and all-over patterns below. The inscription reads:
JANE BOSTOCKE 1598 ALICE LEE WAS BORNE THE 23 OF NOVEMBER BE ING TWESDAY IN THE AFTER NOONE 1596[15][16]
The museum has two other samplers believed to date from the 16th century, one from Germany with religious motifs and one from Italy with floral patterns and grotesques. Both are worked in silk and linen.
'Biblical' sampler by Elizabeth Ross dated 1786Berlin work sampler by Sarah Littleton, 1868
A Dutch sampler dated 1585 survives in the Nederlands Openluchtmuseum in Arnhem.[citation needed]
A sampler in the Museum of London has two cutwork bands stitched in silk, gold, and silver threads and thirteen bands of reticella whitework in white linen thread. The fourth band from the top has the initials E R, the royal arms of Queen Elizabeth I, and the maker's name SUSAN NEGABRI in bold letters. It is believed to date before the queen's death in 1603.[17]
Because very few samplers from the 16th century have been found it is not possible to generalize about their style and appearance. By the middle of the 17th century English, Dutch, and German samplers were being stitched on a narrow band of fabric 6–9in (150–230mm) wide. Hand-woven linen, bleached or unbleached, is the foundation material of early samplers.[18] As fabric was very expensive, these samplers were totally covered with neat rows of stitches. They were known as band samplers and valued highly, often being mentioned in wills and passed down through the generations. These samplers were stitched using a variety of needlework styles, threads, and ornament. Many of them were exceedingly elaborate, incorporating subtly shaded colours, silk and metallic embroidery threads, and using stitches such as Hungarian, Florentine, tent, cross, long-armed cross, two-sided Italian cross, rice, running, Holbein, Algerian eye and buttonhole stitches. The samplers also incorporated small designs of flowers and animals, and geometric designs stitched using as many as 20 different colors of thread.[19] Some were stitched partially or entirely in whitework.
Band samplers were more decorative than the utilitarian random motif spot samplers, and stitchers finished them by adding their names, dates of completion, and sometimes teacher or school names. As the work of sampler making moved into schools in the late 17th and early 18th centuries design styles changed. Alphabets and verses were added along with pictorial elements such as architectural motifs, landscapes, and large potted plants. Educational themes included maps, multiplication tables, perpetual calendars, and acrostic puzzles.[20]
By the 18th century, samplers were a complete contrast to the scattered samples sewn earlier on. They became wider and more square, eventually with borders on all four sides. Samplers were mainly school exercises or mourning samplers[21] during the 18th and 19th centuries, and were almost entirely worked in cross stitch. Design styles were increasingly influenced by Berlin woolwork which became popular worldwide, due to the availability of patterns, initially emanating from Berlin, Germany. This style of needlework reached its height of popularity between the 1830s and 1870s.[22]:36 These samplers were stitched more to demonstrate knowledge than to preserve skill. The stitching of samplers was believed to be a sign of virtue, achievement and industry, and girls were taught the art from a young age.[23]
Berlin woolwork designs had naturalistic shading and more depth of perspective than the flat two-dimensional objects on traditional needlework. By mid-19th century adult needleworkers were devising long and narrow stitch samplers having geometric patterns done in woolwork. The Art Needlework movement and elimination of samplers from female education brought about the decline in traditional sampler making that continued into the 20th century.
Cross-stitch alphabet sampler worked by Elizabeth Laidman, 1760
Sampler dated 1683
English band sampler by Elizabeth Axton dated 1712
Sampler worked by Catharine Ann Speel in silk on linen, Philadelphia, dated 1805
Sampler made by 12-year-old Patty Coggeshall of Rhode Island, dated 1792[24]
Modern samplers
Samplers are widely stitched today, some using kits purchased from needlework shops, some from chart-packs, and many from patterns available on the Internet or through e-mail from designers. Patterns range from simple using only one stitch, to complex, using 15 to 20 and more stitches. Designs range widely in style, from accurate reproductions of historic pieces to much more contemporary and modern styles including subversive stitching. Popular topics include designs commemorating births and marriages, family trees, and mottoes of all kinds. Map charts are widely available in English-speaking countries and Denmark. These are often pictorial maps of local areas, whole countries, or even the imaginary realms of Tolkien's Middle-earth. Many sampler reproductions are also available, copying colors and imperfect stitches from the originals.
The word "sampler" is sometimes inaccurately applied to any piece of needlework meant for display. However, the genre may broadly be said to include any needlework in sampler style with or without lettering.
Materials used include aida cloth, evenweave, and linen fabrics, in cotton, linen, and man-made materials combined in more and more ways; and fibers from cotton floss to silk, rayon, viscose, and metallic.
↑ Samplers and Tapestry Embroideries, Marcus Huish, Longmans, 1913 "First of all consisting of decorative patterns thrown here and there without care upon the surface of a piece of canvas (see Plate II.); then of designs placed in more orderly rows, and making in themselves a harmonious whole; then added thereto alphabet and figures for the use of those who marked the linen, and as an off-shoot imitation of tapestry pictures by the additions of figures, houses, etc. Finally it was adopted as an educational task in the schools, as a specimen of phenomenal achievement at an early age…"
↑ Segura Lacomba, Maravillas, Bordados Populaires Españoles, Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, Instituto ″San Jose de Calasanz″ de Pedagogia, 1949. p.72.
↑ Huish, Samplers and Tapestry Embroideries "the sampler to sowe on, the laces to embroide"
↑ Midsummer Nights Dream Helena to Hermia "...We, Hermia... Have with our needles created both one flower, Both on one sampler etc,."
↑ Huish cites The Needles Excellency... "wherein are divers admirable works wrought with the needle", printed for James Boler, and are to be sold at the Syne of the Marigold in Paules Churchyard"
↑ Banham, Joanna, ed. Encyclopedia of Interior Design, London and Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997. vol. 2 p. 858 ″Needlework″ ISBN1-884964-19-2
↑ Browne, Clare and Jennifer Wearden, Samplers from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London: V&A Publications, 1999. pp. 8, 12, 28–33. ISBN185177-309-6
↑ "Sampler By Jane Bostocke". www.collections.vam.ac.uk. Victoria and Albert Museum. 1598. Retrieved 2021-12-03.
↑ Hughes, Therle, English Domestic Needlework 1660–1860, London: Abbey Fine Arts, 1961. p. 76, fig. 30.
↑ Huish, Samplers and Tapestry Embroideries, 1913, p.171.
↑ Don, Sarah, Traditional Samplers, Newton Abbot and London: David and Charles, 1986. pp. 11–14. ISBN0-71538713-8
↑ Mayor, Susan and Diana Fowle, Samplers, Wakefield RI and London: Moyer Bell, 1996. pp. 7–11. ISBN1-55921-154-7
↑ The Needle arts: a social history of American needlework. Time-Life Books. Alexandria, Va.: Time-Life Books. 1990. ISBN0-8094-6841-7. OCLC21482166.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
Cross-stitch is a form of sewing and a popular form of counted-thread embroidery in which X-shaped stitches in a tiled, raster-like pattern are used to form a picture. The stitcher counts the threads on a piece of evenweave fabric in each direction so that the stitches are of uniform size and appearance. This form of cross-stitch is also called counted cross-stitch in order to distinguish it from other forms of cross-stitch. Sometimes cross-stitch is done on designs printed on the fabric ; the stitcher simply stitches over the printed pattern. Cross-stitch is often executed on easily countable fabric called aida cloth, whose weave creates a plainly visible grid of squares with holes for the needle at each corner.
Embroidery is the art of decorating fabric or other materials using a needle to stitch thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as pearls, beads, quills, and sequins. In modern days, embroidery is usually seen on hats, clothing, blankets, and handbags. Embroidery is available in a wide variety of thread or yarn colour. It is often used to personalize gifts or clothing items.
Assisi embroidery is a form of counted-thread embroidery based on an ancient Italian needlework tradition in which the background is filled with embroidery stitches and the main motifs are outlined but not stitched. The name is derived from the Italian town of Assisi where the modern form of the craft originated.
Blackwork, sometimes historically termed Spanish blackwork, is a form of embroidery generally worked in black thread, although other colours are also used on occasion, as in scarletwork, where the embroidery is worked in red thread. Most strongly associated with Tudor period England, blackwork typically, though not always, takes the form of a counted-thread embroidery, where the warp and weft yarns of a fabric are counted for the length of each stitch, producing uniform-length stitches and a precise pattern on an even-weave fabric. Blackwork may also take the form of free-stitch embroidery, where the yarns of a fabric are not counted while sewing.
Hardanger embroidery or "Hardangersøm" is a form of embroidery traditionally worked with white thread on white even-weave linen or cloth, using counted thread and drawn thread work techniques. It is sometimes called whitework embroidery.
Berlin wool work is a style of embroidery similar to today's needlepoint that was particularly popular in Europe and America from 1804 to 1875. It is typically executed with wool yarn on canvas, worked in a single stitch such as cross stitch or tent stitch, although Beeton's book of Needlework (1870) describes 15 different stitches for use in Berlin work. It was traditionally stitched in many colours and hues, producing intricate three-dimensional looks by careful shading. Silk or beads were frequently used as highlights. The design of such embroidery was made possible by the great progress made in dyeing, initially with new mordants and chemical dyes, followed in 1856, especially by the discovery of aniline dyes, which produced bright colors.
Crewel embroidery, or crewelwork, is a type of surface embroidery using wool. A wide variety of different embroidery stitches are used to follow a design outline applied to the fabric. The technique is at least a thousand years old.
Needlepoint is a type of canvas work, a form of embroidery in which yarn is stitched through a stiff open weave canvas. Traditionally needlepoint designs completely cover the canvas. Although needlepoint may be worked in a variety of stitches, many needlepoint designs use only a simple tent stitch and rely upon color changes in the yarn to construct the pattern. Needlepoint is the oldest form of canvas work.
Chain stitch is a sewing and embroidery technique in which a series of looped stitches form a chain-like pattern. Chain stitch is an ancient craft – examples of surviving Chinese chain stitch embroidery worked in silk thread have been dated to the Warring States period. Handmade chain stitch embroidery does not require that the needle pass through more than one layer of fabric. For this reason the stitch is an effective surface embellishment near seams on finished fabric. Because chain stitches can form flowing, curved lines, they are used in many surface embroidery styles that mimic "drawing" in thread.
Armenian needlelace is a pure form of needle lace made using only a needle, thread and pair of scissors.
Backstitch or back stitch and its variants stem stitch, outline stitch and split stitch are a class of embroidery and sewing stitches in which individual stitches are made backward to the general direction of sewing. In embroidery, these stitches form lines and are most often used to outline shapes and to add fine detail to an embroidered picture. It is also used to embroider lettering. In hand sewing, it is a utility stitch which strongly and permanently attaches two pieces of fabric. The small stitches done back-and-forth makes the back stitch the strongest stitch among the basic stitches. Hence it can be used to sew strong seams by hand, without a sewing machine.
Opus Anglicanum or English work is fine needlework of Medieval England done for ecclesiastical or secular use on clothing, hangings or other textiles, often using gold and silver threads on rich velvet or linen grounds. Such English embroidery was in great demand across Europe, particularly from the late 12th to mid-14th centuries and was a luxury product often used for diplomatic gifts.
Persian embroidery is a type of Persian art and handicraft.
Cutwork or cut work, also known as punto tagliato in Italian, is a needlework technique in which portions of a textile, typically cotton or linen, are cut away and the resulting "hole" is reinforced and filled with embroidery or needle lace.
Cross stitches in embroidery, needlepoint, and other forms of needlework include a number of related stitches in which the thread is sewn in an x or + shape. Cross stitch has been called "probably the most widely used stitch of all" and is part of the needlework traditions of the Balkans, Middle East, Afghanistan, Colonial America and Victorian England.
The straight or running stitch is the basic stitch in hand-sewing and embroidery, on which all other forms of sewing are based. The stitch is worked by passing the needle in and out of the fabric at a regular distance. All other stitches are created by varying the straight stitch in length, spacing, and direction.
In needlework, a slip is a design representing a cutting or specimen of a plant, usually with flowers or fruit and leaves on a stem. Most often, slip refers to a plant design stitched in canvaswork (pettipoint), cut out, and applied to a woven background fabric. By extension, slip may also mean any embroidered or canvaswork motif, floral or not, mounted to fabric in this way.
English embroidery includes embroidery worked in England or by English people abroad from Anglo-Saxon times to the present day. The oldest surviving English embroideries include items from the early 10th century preserved in Durham Cathedral and the 11th century Bayeux Tapestry, if it was worked in England. The professional workshops of Medieval England created rich embroidery in metal thread and silk for ecclesiastical and secular uses. This style was called Opus Anglicanum or "English work", and was famous throughout Europe.
The term Hedebo embroidery covers several forms of white embroidery which originated in the Hedebo (heathland) region of Zealand, Denmark, in the 1760s. The varied techniques which evolved over the next hundred years in the farming community were subsequently developed by the middle classes until around 1820. They were applied to articles of clothing such as collars and cuffs but were also used to decorate bed linen.
Colcha embroidery from the southwest United States is a form of surface embroidery that uses wool threads on cotton or linen fabric. During the Spanish Colonial period, the word colcha referred to a densely embroidered wool coverlet. In time, the word also came to refer to the embroidery stitch that was used for these coverlets, and then began to be used on other surfaces. The colcha stitch is self-couched, with threads applied at a 45-degree angle to tie down the stitch. Originally, the wool threads were dyed naturally, using plants or insects, such as cochineal. Both materials used and design motifs have varied over time.
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![An American sampler: "Margaret Barnholt her sampler done in the twelth [sic] year of her age 1831". Sampler (USA), 1831 (CH 18564023).jpg](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7b/Sampler_%28USA%29%2C_1831_%28CH_18564023%29.jpg/220px-Sampler_%28USA%29%2C_1831_%28CH_18564023%29.jpg)
