English Samplers


The earliest indicators of the change in the purpose of samplers around 1600, from a collection of patterns and stitches to an integral part of education, are considered to be the dating and signing of samplers[1], whose purpose is said to have been to document a child's progress in the process of growing up[2], which cannot apply to the Bostocke sampler if we assume that Jane Bostocke was a professional embroiderer. The addition of alphabets around the middle of the 17th century is seen as a supporting argument[3], although it should be noted that the German sampler from the first half of the 16th century and the Jane Bostocke sampler already feature an alphabet. However, the clearly ordered and planned arrangement of decorative patterns in separate rows, while retaining the previous variety of embroidery stitches and motifs,[4] mostly in addition to pictorial patterns that were still arranged in the style of spot samplers, can be seen as a significant change towards a new form – long and narrow. This made it easier to store a sampler rolled up in a needlework basket without damaging the patterns.[5] The width of the samplers was determined by the width of the linen,[6] while the length could be chosen freely. The area for embroidery was now used in its entirety[7]. Samplers now looked like a long band[8] – hence the name "band sampler."

The aforementioned samplers were probably made by embroiderers from the upper and middle classes. One sampler, which depicts a map of Europe, is inscribed "done at Miss Powell's boarding school Plymouth"[66] . As mentioned above, tuition fees had to be paid for such a school, which was hardly possible for the lower middle class and the lower class, which had grown enormously as a result of the agricultural revolution and had moved to the cities in the course of industrialization, where they lived in extremely miserable conditions. For the latter, any form of education still depended on admission to charity schools or orphanages. The conditions under which daughters of lower-class families lived are vividly illustrated by the sampler created around 1830 by Elizabeth Parker, who, as a servant in a noble household, had to endure mistreatment and abuse that brought her close to suicide[67] . Her sampler also sheds light on the education she and many girls from the lower classes received: she cannot write, but she can embroider the words[68] , which in turn underlines the importance of embroidery and needlework in general for the education of maids. Since the end of the 18th century, the proportion of samplers limited to alphabets, numbers, and names with dates has increased, and these were often made on and with coarse materials—in particular, the color scheme was limited to one or two colors. It can be assumed that with the increase in the number of girls from the lower classes, their training in embroidery was limited to the bare essentials, and the embroidery of more complicated patterns with more valuable materials was left to the ladies of the upper classes and the gentry.

When considering samplers and their history, the use of stitch types and their development is of particular importance. English samplers from the 17th century use a variety of different stitches, such as backstitch, running stitch, satin stitch, chain stitch, ladder stitch, buttonhole stitch, braid stitch, stem stitch, and cross stitch. Many of these stitches were used to embellish clothing, e.g., collars, cuffs, waistcoats, etc. This changed at the beginning of the 18th century: in 1723, Barbara Jones made a sampler entirely in cross stitch[69] , then in 1729 Mary Smith[70] and in 1735 an unknown embroiderer embroidered a sampler entirely in cross stitch[71] . From the middle of the 18th century onwards, cross-stitch was predominantly used on samplers and the proportion of other stitches – often half cross-stitch or tapestry stitch – decreased more and more until, from the 1820s onwards, samplers were made exclusively in cross-stitch, with very few exceptions. There is consensus in the literature that from this period onwards, "the word 'sampler' has generally come to be equated with 'cross stitch'"[72] . One reason for this change may be that, from the 17th century onwards, embroidery was increasingly used for items of domestic or everyday use, such as chair covers, book covers, mirror backs, boxes, and much more.[73] In this regard, cross stitch offered the advantage of reinforcing the embroidery base, especially when the crosses were worked individually. This made the embroidered items more durable.[74] On the other hand, as described above, since the 16th century, girls and women from all walks of life who were not professionally trained increasingly took up embroidery, and they may have preferred cross stitch because it is easy to embroider. The stitches of a pattern could be easily counted on linen fabric, and one only had to pay attention to the direction in which the crosses were embroidered, although occasionally the crosses did not follow one direction throughout. In addition, cross-stitch is easy to unpick, so mistakes can be easily corrected.

In the second half of the 19th century, the number of samplers decreased significantly, which may have been due to a change in fashion on the one hand and social change on the other. For the 20th century, Rebecca Scott points out that the First World War led to far fewer servants being employed, which in turn meant that there was no longer a need for the working class to master needlework, especially as technological progress also made many types of needlework redundant. Interest in handicrafts also declined among the wealthy aristocracy and gentry, as there were now sufficient new opportunities for entertainment and leisure activities. [75]