Sampler

Object Name:

Sampler

Object ID:

1924.008

Creator:

Humphrey, Cylenda (1814-1856)

Place of Origin:

Weymouth, MA

Date:

1824

Description:

Sampler. Made by Cylenda Humphrey (1814-1856), Weymouth, MA; 1824. Silk twist and crinkled floss (created by untwisting the plies of the twist) worked on loosely woven linen. An elaborate design consisting of rows of alphabets and a verse, followed by a row of strawberry motifs over a design of trees and a basket of flowers at the bottom. The three-sided border features an undulating floral vine down the sides, and across the top is the vine with the addition of more strawberry plants and birds. The cross-stitched alphabets appear as follows: first, a script alphabet of capital letters, an alphabet of block capital letters followed by the numbers one through ten, and a lower-case alphabet of block letters. The verse reads: "Child of summer lovely Rose * In thee what blushing beauty glows / But ere to*morrows setting sun * Thy beauty fades thy form is gone." The verse is followed by the inscription: "Cylenda Humphrey Aged 10 Years July 1824." While the lettering is all worked in cross stitches, the floral and bird motifs are worked in a variety of stitches, including cross, straight, outline, satin, and chain. The vines are worked with green stems and two shades of pink flowers (now very faded); the birds at the top are in shades of blue; more birds at the bottom are in shades of tan (possibly originally pink) and yellow; and the trees and flower basket are green and shades of tan and brown, predominately. The large script alphabet is blue; other alphabets were probably originally pink, now very faded to tan and cream. The top and bottom edges of the linen are selvages; the right side is hemmed, and the left side is raw, with just loose whip stitching to keep it from raveling.

Material:

Textile
Linen
Silk

Dimensions:

H-17.3 W-16.3 inches

Credit Line:

Gift of E. Smith Tenney

People:

Humphrey, Cylenda (1814-1856), Tenney, E. Smith (1854-1944)

Subjects:

Baskets, Berries, Birds, Flowers, Leaves, Trees