Object number1960.9.4
Sampler
Date1734
Artist
Betty Hickman
(English, b.1723)
CultureEnglish
MediumSilk core/metallic embroidery threads on linen ground and linen handling edge and silk
DimensionsFramed: 16 1/4 × 13 3/4 in. (41.28 × 34.93 cm)
Unframed (Textile): 17 1/8 × 14 1/2 in. (43.5 × 36.83 cm)
Unframed (Textile): 17 1/8 × 14 1/2 in. (43.5 × 36.83 cm)
Credit LineGift of Mrs. James W. Packard (Elizabeth Gillmer, class of 1894)
On View
Not on viewPeriod18th c
Classification(s)
SignedBetty Hickman
InscribedInscribed (in central oval): This / peace my name shall / ever have / when I am de / ad and in my grave and / gready / worms my body eat than you / may / see my name compleat / Betty Hickman / aged eleven years / July the 18 1734 BH / When this you see remember me / Mind in your youth the God of truth / ingenious work accomplish cannot be without patience and industrey
BibliographyThanks be to my Friends: Selected Samplers from the Collection of the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center (Poughkeepsie: FLLAC, 2004)
Pictorial sampler ("This peace my name shall ever have...")Exhibition HistoryPoughkeepsie, New York, FLLAC, Vassar College, "Thanks be to my Friends: Selected Samplers from the Collection of the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center," June 5-July 18, 2004DescriptionThe center of the sampler is an egg shaped inscription panel containing a memento mori verse, an inscription detailing the maker's name, age and date , three aphorisms, and ten decorative dividing bands, surmounting a vignette of two parrots flanking a vining flower grounded by striated green mounds and surrounded by twining florals. The inscription panel is set into a pastoral landscape possibly depicting a courting couple or a betrothal. The entire picture is covered in satin stitch. In the lower right corner a woman in contemporary dress standing behind a smaller female figure have their male counterparts in the lower left corner. In the middle below the oval is a cupid with a bow situated between the male and female youths where they face each other. The male youth carries a bow. The girl stands beside a sheep. Behind the male figures is a peacock in pride. Flowering plants and vegetation cover the background, meeting the sky above that displays a sun, moon, stars, and angels, two with trumpets. A border around the sampler that was probably covered with a framing mat and thus protected from light reveals the original blue thread colors before they yellowed. Thread colors are blues, greens, reds, salmon, cream, black, silver metallic.
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge.
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