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Jane Bostocke's Sampler

The Jane Bostocke Sampler, England, 1598. The Jane Bostocke Sampler, England, 1598. Copyright Victoria and Albert Museum, London, acc. no. T.190-1960.

Jane Bostocke's sampler is the earliest surviving British example of this type of embroidery. The sampler was worked by Jane Bostocke of Langley (Shropshire, England) and includes the date 1598. The sampler was made to commemorate the birth of her cousin, Alice Lee, two years previously.

The text on the sampler reads:

'JANE BOSTOCKE 1598 / ALICE LEE WAS BORNE THE 23 OF NOVEMBER BE / ING TWESDAY IN THE AFTER NOONE 1596.'

The sampler has a linen ground and measures 42.6 x 36.2 cm. It is decorated with silk thread (in blue, brown, green, pink, red, yellow and white), metal thread, as well as beads and pearls. The sampler includes family crests, as well as a variety of animals, birds and flowers. All of the main motifs are worked in cross stitch, apart from a large dog that is filled with a closely worked arrowhead stitch. There are two small examples of metal thread interlacing in the top right hand corner.

The other patterns are mainly worked in back stitchbuttonhole stitch, chain stitch, coral stitch, couching, detached buttonhole stitch, ladder stitch, satin stitch, speckling stitch, two-sided Italian cross, with some bullion knot, French knot, as well as beadwork.

This sampler is regarded as a transition sampler, moving away from a reference piece for a more experienced embroiderer, to one for measuring and recording the embroiderer’s skill. The sampler is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (acc. no. T.190-1960).

Sources:

  • ANTIQUES, Witney (2000). Paradise Revisited: British Samplers, Hisroric Embroideries 1590-1880.
  • BROWNE, Clare and Jennifer WEARDEN (eds. 1999). Samplers from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London: V&A Publications.
  • CLABBURN, Pamela (1998). Samplers, Princes Risborough: Shire Publications, pp. 7-9.
  • (retrieved 27 May 2016).

V&A online catalogue  (retrieved 6 July 2016).

GVE

Last modified on Saturday, 28 January 2017 10:49