Down the Rabbit Hole

Sampler from Feller Needlework Collection Vol 2, figure 450.

  It all started with the book 'The Feller Needlework Collection : 2'(OOP). Aside from it being a gorgeously illustrated book, inside the front cover is a sampler pattern that had me drooling from the first time I saw it. Since it had been calling to me since the book was published in 2002, It went on my "to do" list. Then I got the book 'Embroidered Stories: Scottish Samplers' by Helen Wyld published in 2018,and I saw a sampler that looked so familiar, The Elizabeth Hadden sampler on pages 16 and 17, circa 1770. It was nearly identical to the sampler in the Feller book. I was so excited, wondering if anyone else had made the connection between these two samplers! These are the times I wish I had money...money to travel and research and find connecting samplers. Maybe they were done by sisters? At the same school? Under the tutelage of the same teacher?

   I then started to delve into some of my other sampler books. I found a sampler on page 69 of 'Samplers and Tapestry Embroideries' by Marcus Huish, but it was an earlier picture of the sampler in the Feller book. I had been perusing my issues of SANQ (Sampler and Antique Needlework Quarterly, now OOP). Something was nagging at my brain that I had seen these beautiful samplers before. Suddenly there they were. in Volume 27 on page 56, three more! They were so similar that they had to be related, three samplers done by three sisters, Hillen (Helen), Elizabeth and Caroline Scott, circa 1730! I don't know just how rare sister samplers are, but this is the first set of three that I had seen. Even better, they nearly matched the one from the Feller collection. The floral bands and the geometric red and green band were there, just in slightly different positions.The arrangement of the bands and motifs are slightly different on all the samplers, but the similarities just screamed at me. The predominately satin stitch floral bands were so strikingly beautiful, and to my mind, firmly established that they were related to the Feller sampler. The samplers had been part of an exhibition at the Cora Ginsberg Gallery in 2002. On page 63 of Naomi Tarrants' book on Scottish samplers 'Remember Now Thy Creator' there is a sampler by Ann Scott that has a very similar floral band, and another sampler on page 139 has a similar geometric band. I have a feeling there are more out there, waiting to be found. It is so much fun to make finds like this...I have gotten in touch with a collector, and I am hoping they can connect the threads and perhaps fill in some of the blank spaces in the history of these samplers and the girls that made them.

 PS-I wish I could find more pictures of the various samplers, but all I can find is the one at the top of this post.