Embroidered Sampler

American samplers from the first half of the eighteenth century are exceedingly rare. This is the earliest American needlework in the American Wing’s collection, and is among the first samplers made in Newport, Rhode Island. It is only pre-dated by a recently discovered sampler from this group stitched in 1715, which is now in the Bayou Bend Collection. Although during the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century English immigrants sought political independence and religious freedom in America, they continued to follow English taste in fashion and embroidery traditions. English needlework patterns came to the colonies through émigré needlework teachers, published pattern books, and engravings, and these designs were adapted into American needlework.

This is reflected in Anne’s sampler with its long narrow shape and vibrant bands of motifs that evoke the Baroque style of seventeenth and early eighteenth-century British samplers. Embroidered primarily in cross-stitch using colorful imported silk threads, bands of stylized flowers and leaves run horizontally from left to right. The bold central band pattern and the lily-and-bird band design above it, relate to other Newport samplers worked as late as 1746.

Although unfinished on three sides, Anne’s sampler is among the first American samplers to have a surrounding border. That the sampler is also unfinished at the bottom adds to its interest, since it teaches us about how sampler patterns were laid out and worked from the top to the bottom. It is not known why Anne did not complete the piece—the most likely reason is her frustration with the intricacies of such fine work.

Anne Chase was born on Martha’s Vineyard on April 22, 1709 to James Chase (b. 1685-1729) and Rachael Brown Chase (1687-1741). In about 1712 her family moved to Newport where she later attended one of the yet unidentified schools there. On December 5, 1733, she married Nantucket native Timothy Folger (1706-1750). Anne and Timothy lived on Nantucket where their five children were born between 1734 and 1746.