This is a very curious sampler, belonging to a small group made in England during the first quarter of the eighteenth century, that use lettering to create form and design. This example is one of the most outstanding in that the letter forms are dispersed around a central mirror image geometrical double cartouche.

Leigh Ashton has this to say about Jane Parish's samplers in his 1926 book Samplers (The Medici Society, London and Boston): During the early part of the (eighteenth) century the interest in lettering was so great that samplers are met with in which the decoration consists entirely in verses and inscriptions embroidered with a view to displaying alphabetical elaboration.

Two other examples of decorative lettered samplers, in the collection of The Scarlet Letter, include a piece made by Jane Ogle in 1700, and another by Elizabeth Norris in 1730. The inscriptions on the Parish sampler, disjointed by the central cartouche, are as follows:

JANE PARISH FEBRUARY THE 4 EP* PRAY THINK ON ME AS YOU PASS BY AS YOU ARE NOW SO ONCE WAS I BUT HEAR I LYE DESOLVED TO DUST IN HOPES TO RISE AMONG THE JUST THE LORDS NAME BE PRAISED/ ISAAC PARISH ELIZABETH PARISH JANE PARISH HER WORK IV LY THE FOURTIETH 1718 FINIS
and
CHRIST WAS THE WORD THAT SPAKE IT HE TOOK THE BREAD AND BREAK IT AND WHAT THAT WORD DID MAKE IT THAT I BELIEVE AND TAKE IT QUOTH ELIZABETH QUEEN OF ENGLAND PRAISE YE THE L...

(*EP is probably Jane's mother, Elizabeth, as well as her needlework instructor).

Linen: 35 or 40 count, please be careful to specify your choice on ordering.

Finished size: The original sampler measures 8-1/4"x11-1/2". On 40 count linen this reproduction will be approximately 9"x14-1/2" and on 35 count, 10-3/4"x16-3/4".

Source: From the collection of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge in England.