Sampler

In the opening decades of the nineteenth century, Baltimore was a flourishing inland port. The city’s prosperity was marked by the building of fine town houses and large country seats. In this unusually large sampler, a handsome three-bay brick house is stitched in three-quarter view with a precisely worked white picket fence and entrance gate surrounding the front garden. Unlike most houses stitched on samplers, where only the front façade is shown, there is an attempt to give the house three-dimensionality by including the left side view as well.


The house’s garden serves a dual purpose. To the left, a lady lingers by a grave monument topped by an urn. The monument is framed by a weeping willow, a traditional symbol of mourning. To the right side of the house, a shepherd tends his flock of sheep, while ducks hurry by. The sheep and shepherd shelter under a bold palm tree. It is interesting that Mary Davis combined these two traditional embroidery scenes in her needlework; in most cases, the stitcher would have highlighted one or the other. The house and garden are surrounded by a glorious wreath of flowers, tied at the bottom with a bow knot.


Neither Mary Davis, nor the school she attended, have not been identified. However, another extremely similar sampler is known that is signed “Eliza Ann Suter Baltimore May the 1826”, a mere two months after Mary Davis completed hers in March of the same year. Eliza Ann Suter’s sampler has an almost identical composition to Mary’s. However, the shepherd and his sheep are beneath the palm tree on the left side of the composition, and the lady joins them under the palm tree, where she rests on a slat-back chair. The ducks and a cow enjoy the shade of the willow on the right. The houses on both are very much the same, including the blue shutters on the side elevation that do not match the yellow shutters on the front façade.