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We know though of course that the history of tapestries
etc.. go back way before then, one example, being the 'Baeyuex
Tapestry' depicting the battle of Hastings in 1066. The samplers
of this era where generally very long and thin (known as Band
Samplers) and would only literally be bits of cloth with
different stitches on them. Gradually as time went on, the
stitchers would start putting alphabets and numerals, together
with different motifs and symbols. They would also sign and date
their work. You would find that samplers of this era were rare,
as the cost of materials was dear and hard to come by.
During the 18th
and 19th centuries, samplers became more and more sophisticated,
with the addition of biblical verses, pictures and complex
stitches. The later half of the 18th century saw the first 'Map'
samplers, which as their name suggests were pictures of
countries and their geographical outlines. Although not
necessarily accurate for obvious reasons, they were non the less
intricate pieces of work. |
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During the 19th
century, samplers became an important part of the school
curriculum, young girls were encouraged to stitch to prepare
themselves for their rolè as wives to be. These samplers tended
to be simpler, usually only having alphabets, numerals, their
name and date, and the name of the school. The age of the
stitcher ranged from as young as six up to about the age of
fifteen years. The average age being eleven. Left is an
example of a six year old Emily Shelton Sander's work, dated
1858.
The early part of
the 20th century saw a real decline in the number of girls who
made samplers, social ideas were changing, no longer was it
considered as important to 'teach' a girl to be become a wife,
new technologies where advancing, creating greater opportunities
for all. |
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So what of
samplers today?, well they are not being made in schools
anymore!, and the average 11 year old would today be sitting
playing with an X-Box whilst listening to S-Club7 or Craig
David!. Samplers tend now to be stitched by older people as a
recreational hobby, and cover a vast variety of designs, not
just the regimental alphabet and numeral design. Whilst the
hobby is still very popular, fewer younger people are partaking
in it.
Antique samplers
are very popular among collectors, Americans in particular
harbour a great interest in them, and their popularity as a
collectors item is only growing. To buy a good condition
sampler, you can expect to pay anything up to $1000-$1500. The
beauty of samplers is held in the fact that each one will be
totally unique, you will not find two the same. The history that
each one has will also be unique, especially when each sampler
has been crafted by a child probably no older that 12!
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