This is an American sampler displaying all of those features that make these indigenous samplers so appealing: a naive freshness, an unschooled layout, subtle colour palette, and an exuberant and disproportionate pictorial scene with people as large as houses.

Formerly in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the sampler was recently deaccessioned and via The Scarlet Letter is now in the collection of Lorraine Mootz of Germany. It was made in Philadelphia and is related to Fig. 391 in Betty Ring's Girlhood Embroidery.

Origin and date: Pennsylvania, 1799

Linen count and finished size: 30 count, 16-1/2"x18". Kit contains fabric, silk or cotton thread, needle and instructions.

Stitches: Queen, cross, satin, stem

Source: Deaccessioned Philadelphia Museum of Art, now in a private collection