A marvelous, complete charmer of a small pictorial sampler and one of my very favorite finds ever. Photos do no justice but those embroidered stitches are TINY, the color fantastic, and the small scale makes it extra intimate and tender feeling; studying it feels like a process of discovery, noticing one thing and then another, and oh, that little bird! And then wonderful patches of very old darning scattered all over, very very much to the good, making it something of a darning sampler as well (!) and attesting to someone or someones having cared very much about it, surely descendants of Miss Elizabeth Wood, handing it down across generations since 1808. (I especially love the rectangular stretch of darning straight down the center of Elizabeth's name plate and beyond--perhaps with a few of those letters re-embroidered too; all very old mends and beautiful acts of preservation.) Purchased from a seller in England, looks to me like hand-dyed cotton thread on very fine handwoven wool.
8 5/8" x 7 7/8". Some scattered small holes as evident, but lay it over a light tan backing and they pretty much disappear. Really not fragile at all to handle, quite sound and stable (just be sure protect it from moths to prevent any more holes!) Many times better in person, a total delight.
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