Diverted by Antique Samplers

Antique Samplers - Home

I enjoy antique samplers. Unfortunatly I don't own to show. But there many pictures on the web, including the web site above.

What do I like about these samplers?

1) Alphabets - Sometimes incomplete, sometimes with missing or extra (?!) letters, sometimes multiple alphabets, sometimes capitalized and sometimes in lowercase and they even show up in a variety of stitches.

2) Motifs - Samplers come with a variety of motifs sometimes without explanation or relevance to the rest of the sampler - dogs, rabbits, flowers, trees, birds, deer, crowns. I've even seen one with a lobster.

3) Houses - Featured in many samplers they are almost never to scale. They will be towered over by people, trees, flowers, dogs, etc. - see #2.

4) Sayings - the older the sampler, sometimes the more obscure

5) Personal Info - name, date, location (some done by extremely young girls who shouldn't have the patience for such an undertaking)

6) Vines - a border of a flower or strawberry vine around the sampler - usually asymmetrical

7) Flowers - did I mention flowers? Sometimes very realistic, sometimes highly stylized. Sometimes a huge flower will grow out of a thimble sized pot. Or a small flower will sprout from a huge pot.

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