Cleveland Museum of Art

Long Sampler

Date

c. 1650–70

Medium

embroidery: silk on linen tabby ground

Culture

England, 17th century

Department

Textiles

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Samplers were created as a mark of achievement in needlework by young ladies as they progressed in their education. Because they display levels of skill and technique, samplers often include figurative or scenic decoration along with the alphabet and various horizontal and vertical patterns that could serve as guides for future stitching. Most samplers reveal the pride of a young lady as she showed off her considerable accomplishment in sewing and were treasured from generation to generation. Long samplers from England in the 1600s often reproduced or adapted designs from earlier pattern books for needlework.

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