It is the fantastic embroidered border--which happily consumes much of the space!--that really sold me on this American schoolgirl sampler, which dates sometime between 1800-1830 I believe. Details show it best--two borders, really, with this wonderful snaking vine punctuated with a variety of flowers in between. With a cross-stitch alphabet at center, and then again in lower case with numbers 1,2,3,4 running along the bottom, uninterrupted. The color on the green and yellow thread on the upper case alphabet has faded some as evident, but the overall effect remains quite bold and striking. Silk thread I believe, on homespun linen, which shows a bit of threadbareness in a few spots, and one small darn over the lower case "k". Not at all fragile, very sound and stable. I have photographed against white as well as against cardboard to give a good sense.
11 1/8" x 10". Overall good condition, not fragile. Fading to the lighter colored thread as evident and a couple of threadbare spots but no evident losses to the embroidery itself.
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