Sampler

Object Name:

Sampler

Object ID:

2010.030.01

Creator:

Hodskins, Almira (1806-1875)

Place of Origin:

Walpole, NH

Date:

circa 1815

Description:

Sampler. Family register, made by Almira Hodskins (1806-1875), Walpole, NH; c. 1815. Unfinished, worked in silk threads on a golden brown linen ground. Central panel is divided into two alphabets at top and the "family record" below. The first alphabet is script capital letters followed by numbers one through nine; second alphabet is block capital letters; third is lower-case block letters. The family register, within an arched gravestone-shaped frame reads: 'Family Record. / Mr. Aaron Hodskins. born / Aug. 17. 1769. / Mrs. Rhoda. Hodskins. born / Feb. 1. 1769. / Names. Births. Deaths. / Esther. Hodskins Born. Oct. 7. 1791 / Willa Hodskins. Born. Feb. 21. 1795 / Asahel Hodskins / Born Jan. 31. 1800 / Almira Hodskins. / Born. March. 18. 186." Where the maker ran out of room, she split the name "Hodskins" to a line above, and she appears to have left the "0" out of the year "1806." At center bottom below the family record panel is the maker's name, "Almira Hodskins." All of the lettering is worked in cross stitch. An elaborate floral vine frame emanating from cornucopias at the lower corners is unfinished, except up the left side to the center top. The hemmed edges of the linen are bordered with a sawtooth design in aqua satin stitches. The cornucopia and flowers are worked in satin, outline, and chain stitches. A combination of silk floss and silk twist is used; in the golden yellow of the cornucopias and pink flowers, the plies of the twist were untwisted to create a crinkled floss. Silk colors include black for the family register; dark brown, aqua and pink for the alphabets; darker aqua for the vine, pink, white, and blue for the flowers, yellow and black for the cornucopias.

Material:

Linen

Dimensions:

H-14.75 W-15.7 inches

Provenance:

The sampler descended to Ellen Amanda Hodskins, born in Walpole, a daughter of Asahel Bundy and Cynthia (Hodskins) Hodskins. She married George D. Kingsbury of Gilsum in 1846, worked "Mountain Farm" on the side of Kingsbury Mountain, with her husband and raised a family. Their son George Warren Kingsbury married Frances Watkins, who next lived on the farm. The samplers next passed from their daughter, Alice Kingsbury Wright to her children Justin Wright, Alfred Wright, Walter Wright, and Theodora Wright Weston.

Credit Line:

Gift of Theodora Wright Weston

People:

Hodskins, Almira (1806-1875)