This beautiful and imaginative English random or spot sampler with its perfectly chosen motifs and colours, is dated to the middle of the seventeenth century. Although it is long and narrow like the band sampler which I showed in an earlier post, it is quite different in style: while the repeated motifs of band samplers are stitched in neat parallel rows, spot samplers are characterised by the random arrangment of single motifs, which are 'spotted' over the surface rather than arranged in single bands.
By the seventeenth century needlework was seen as a highly desirable skill and many embroiderers, from young girls to their mothers and grandmothers, reached a high standard in their stitching. Like band samplers, spot samplers were an essential reference for the embroiderer; the motifs would have been copied to decorate not only household linen, bed coverings and curtains, table coverings and cushions, bags and pincushions, but also the elaborate and beautifully decorated clothing worn by both men and women.
The workmanship of this sampler is especially fine, displaying beautiful stitching and placement of the 'random' motifs. The sampler is worked on a linen ground with silk threads, and the stitches the embroiderer has used are eyelets, back stitch, Hungarian stitch and rococo stitch, along with pulled thread work.
You can find this and many other traditional samplers in the book Samplers by Clare Browne and Jennifer Wearden, a Victoria and Albert Museum publication, and a wonderful resource containing stunning images of works from the museum's collection.
By the seventeenth century needlework was seen as a highly desirable skill and many embroiderers, from young girls to their mothers and grandmothers, reached a high standard in their stitching. Like band samplers, spot samplers were an essential reference for the embroiderer; the motifs would have been copied to decorate not only household linen, bed coverings and curtains, table coverings and cushions, bags and pincushions, but also the elaborate and beautifully decorated clothing worn by both men and women.
The workmanship of this sampler is especially fine, displaying beautiful stitching and placement of the 'random' motifs. The sampler is worked on a linen ground with silk threads, and the stitches the embroiderer has used are eyelets, back stitch, Hungarian stitch and rococo stitch, along with pulled thread work.
You can find this and many other traditional samplers in the book Samplers by Clare Browne and Jennifer Wearden, a Victoria and Albert Museum publication, and a wonderful resource containing stunning images of works from the museum's collection.
Photo © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
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