Needlework picture (Mourning picture)

Description

This is a mourning picture with silk, linen, and chenille threads, and appliqued painted velvet on linen. It was worked in 1829 by Ingeber Vandever under the tuition of schoolmistress Catharine A. Washington of Wilmington, Delaware. Another sampler with almost the identical composition - a stenciled velvet image of a man and a woman, colors, dates, and stitching style - is known. It is not attributed, but does say "Wilmington, Del." on the right side. The Vandever family was respectable and wealthy. Their ancestors adopted the Lutheran religion and fled from the Netherlands to the wilderness of Delaware in the 16th century, settling in a place called "Vandevere's Island." Their house was built before Old Swedes Church in Wilmington. The inscription on Ingeber's sampler reads: "Tuition by / CA Washington / Ingeber R Vandever / work in the 12th year / of her age 1829"