Object number1960.9.49
Sampler
Date1802
Artist
Charlotte James
(English, born Norwich 1791)
CultureEnglish
MediumSilk threads on 64 count wool ground
DimensionsSight: 13 1/2 x 11 3/4 in. (34.29 x 29.85 cm)
Credit LineGift of Mrs. James W. Packard (Elizabeth Gillmer, class of 1894)
On View
Not on viewPeriod19th c
Classification(s)
Signed Charlotte James
Inscribed Let gratitude in acts of goodness flow. / My love to God, in love to man below. / Be this my joy - to calm the troubled breast, / Support the weak, and succour the distrest, / Direct the wand 'rer, dry the widows tear, / The orphan guard, the sinking spirits cheer. / Tho' shall my pow' r to act, tho' mean my skill, / God sees the heart, he judges by the will.
At center: 1802 Charlotte James aged 11 years
BibliographyThanks be to my Friends: Selected Samplers from the Collection of the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center (Poughkeepsie: FLLAC, 2004)
Sampler ("Let gratitude in acts of goodness flow...")
Lukacher, Joanne. Imitation and Improvement: The Norfolk Sampler Tradition. In the Company of Friends Press, 2013Exhibition 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 Charlotte James sampler is a highly decorative alphabet and verse sampler worked in Norwich, Norfolk in 1802. The sampler displays 3 alphabets surmounted and separated by intricate and distinctive bands - a chevron band worked in satin stitch in gold, brown, and green silk, a cross stitch arcaded band alternating acorns and eight point stars and a lacy eyelet band in green and cream. Below is an elaborate band of linked octagons, the hallmark of a Norfolk sampler. The center octagon contains the inscription "1802/Charlotte James/ aged 11/ years balance by octagons containing flower-filled cornucopia and floral arrangements in baskets. The verse below is flanked by matching motifs of squirrels in trees above another symmetrical arrangement of birds in polled trees and confronting deer. The deer and polled trees are two other characteristic Norfolk sampler devices. A twining multi-floral border tied with a bowknot completes the primarily greens, browns, gold, grey, cream, tan, dark pink, and light blue composition.
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge.
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