Made at Mrs. Ventham's Boarding School, Winton. The building depicted in this expansive, busy sampler is probably the school itself. A nearly identical sampler, also made in 1804, is pictured on plate 19 of Samplers by Susan Mayor and Diana Fowle. The detailed and naturalistic scene of a bustling farmyard was probably inspired by what was taking place outside the schoolroom walls as the girls inside stitched.

The subject matter is unusual, as most schoolroom samplers of this period were usually more conventional and stylized. The numerous domestic animals shown are quite realistically rendered, as are the rural characters pursuing their chores of milking, feeding chickens, drawing water from the well, carrying baskets of laundry, pushing wheelbarrows, and carrying a scythe.

Origin and date: England, 1804

Linen count and finished size: 35 or 40 count, 16"x14-1/2" or 14"x12-3/4" (please specify)

Stitches: Cross, satin

Source: Private collection