American Furniture & Decorative Arts

216.

18th Century Needlework Sampler, “Sarah Sawyer is

my name and with my needle wrought the same. I was

born March the 25th in the year 1740. This sampler I did

in the year 1757.,” Newbury, Massachusetts, worked in

silk threads on a linen ground, with rows of alphabet and

numerals alternating with geometric floral bands over the

inscription, enclosed on three sides by sawtooth and

undulating floral borders, over a satin-stitched landscape

centering a fruit tree with rabbits, birds, dogs, flowering

bushes, and strawberry vines, (toning, fading), 22 1/4 x 12

1/2 in., in a molded wood frame.

Provenance: This sampler previously sold at Skinner,

June 10, 1989, Americana auction 1265, lot 161.

Literature: According to New England families,

genealogical, and memorial, by William Richard Cutter,

Lewis Historical Publishing Co., New York, 1913, pp. 128-

129, Sarah Sawyer was born March 25, 1740 in Newbury,

Massachusetts, the daughter of Enoch, a physician, and

Sarah (Pierpoint) Sawyer. She was the second wife of

Thomas Parsons (b. April, 28, 1739), the son of a famous

preacher of his day. They married on July 18, 1762, and

resided in Newburyport. Thomas Parsons was a mariner

and although was reported missing, was thought to have

been murdered aboard ship in February of 1772.

This sampler is one of an important group worked in

Newbury and Newburyport, Massachusetts, between

1700-60. See Girlhood Embroidery: American Samplers,

Pictorial Needlework 1650-1850, by Betty Ring, Alfred A.

Knopf, Inc., 1993, vol. 1, p. 115; A Gallery of American

Samplers: The Theodore H. Kapnek Collection, by Glee

Krueger, 1798, plate 19; and American Samplers, Ethel

Stanwood Bolton and Eva Johnston Coe, 1973, plate

XXIV, for related examples.

$4,000-6,000

217.

Needlework Sampler, “Martha Peaslee Bar Feb 24

1807,” reportedly Newburyport, Massachusetts, stitched

with silk threads on a linen ground with central sawtooth

bordered reserve with rows of alphabets over a pious

verse, bordered by a yellow bowknot at the top flanked by

flowering vines issuing from two planters, the lower border

with Martha’s name and date stitched in an ellipse flanked

by floral sprays, all enclosed in another sawtooth border,

(toning, fading), 17 1/4 x 17 in., in a period molded

giltwood frame.

$3,000-5,000

218.

Federal Silk Needlework and Watercolor Picture of

Moses in the Bulrushes, “Mary J.M. Kaleb” early 19th

century, stitched with silk and chenille threads on a silk

ground with watercolor features, sky and background,

the central oval reserve depicting the biblical story

with classically dressed women and baby Moses in a

verdant landscape, with a monument in the background

bearing the maker’s signature in the pediment, with silk-

stitched bowknotted flower garland above the scene and

cornucopias below; (minor toning, light stains, some small

frayed lines and a few repairs to fraying l.c.), 24 1/2 x 20

3/4 in., in a period molded giltwood frame.

$1,500-2,500

online bidding at http://www.skinnerinc.com 59

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