Sampler (Verse sampler)

Description

This compartmented verse sampler, worked in 1789 by Mary Cooper was stitched on a tiffany ground in tiny silk tent stitches for the floral sprays alternating with cross-stitched text. Mary's sampler, still in its original frame, is one of the latest known examples of its type, while Ann Flowers' 1753 sampler is the earliest. Scratched or penciled in eighteenth-century script on the original wooden backboard is "Mary Cooper Work / done at Ann Marshs School / Philadelphia." Although Mary's sampler is representative of a style worked in the Philadelphia area, her sister, Sarah, and a cousin, Hannah Cooper, worked oval samplers - a style not previously recognized as a Philadelphia form. However, the similarity of materials and workmanship between Mary's sampler and Sarah and Hannah's samplers are strong enough to suggest that Hannah and Sarah also worked under Ann Marsh's tutelage. Hannah's sampler is also in Winterthur's collection.