Sarah's Place
I thought people might like to see a little more of Sarah Carter's Dressmaking shop, the collection I am going to catalogue at Gippsland Heritage Park. I am only going to put small pictures on here, but have made a set at Flickr which is not working!
This is the shop. Inside is a counter and a glassed-off work room. This is the counter (and not shown from its best angle, it looks better from the public side):
There are all sorts of gems - this is a workbasket on the shelf I haven't even opened yet. I need to be ready to list all contents before I move anything.
And this is one of the absolute stunning pieces an 1842 cross stitch sampler by Fanny Shelton, aged 8. And I know nothing about her. Was it done here? Did it come out with a family from England? It is hard to photograph, as it is under glass in a glass display case.
Here is the verse:
posted by Linda at 6:48 am
2 Comments:
Oh my gosh Linda, that sampler is so beautiful! I'm assuming that the fabric is linen and it appears to me that the stitches are worked over one fabric thread.
To be honest, the design and the stitching look a bit advanced for an 8 year old. The motifs are extremely detailed and the verse is rather advanced for such a young mind.
Judging by the variety of colors used, the stitcher most likely came from a wealthy family. I'm assuming too that the threads are silk.
My thoughts are that perhaps this was done as a school project, back when learning to embroidery was an important part of education for girls. There isn't an alphabet on it so it isn't a marking sampler, meaning it wasn't meant for utilitarian purposes.
Obviously, I know more about American samplers than I do those in Oz or England but I feel you may be correct in thinking that this was brought over from England.
The verse actually fascinates me for how, even at eight years, female children were encouraged to think that they were lesser than males.
Sharon - is this a common verse on samplers of the time????
(Hopefully Sharon is reading the comments!)
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