Sampler (Fancy sampler)

Description

This verse sampler, worked in 1791 by Hannah Cooper was stitched with silk threads on a tiffany ground. Hannah is the cousin of sisters Mary and Sarah Cooper from Camden, New Jersey. Mary worked a compartmental verse sampler, now in Winterthur's collection, and signed the backboard "Mary Cooper Work / done at Ann Marshs School / Philadelphia." Sarah worked an oval sampler, comparable to Hannah's sampler, which was a style not previously recognized as a Philadelphia form. It is not known where Sarah and Hannah went to school. 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 signed her work: "Hannah Cooper Her Work In The Yr 1791"