Embroidered whitework sampler

Whitework samplers typically consist of a variety of stitches and lace-making techniques, all stitched in white thread. Based on the small number of documented seventeenth-century embroiderers who made multiple samplers, it is thought that samplers containing whitework, cutwork, drawnwork, and lace designs were stitched only after multi-colored band samplers were finished, as whitework techniques are more difficult. While many surviving English samplers include lace, cutwork, and drawnwork, few examples of seventeenth-century lace have been attributed to English manufacture.

This sampler is worked in whitework and reticella, which requires a stitcher to remove warp and weft threads from a piece of fabric before stabilizing the fabric with buttonhole stitches and creating designs based on the grid of the linen. The top of the sampler, worked in satin, eye, and line stitches, features the initials "MD" (presumably the initials of the maker) and an alphabet, along with geometric and stylized floral patterns of varying length. The remainder of the sampler consists of cutwork filled with reticella lace in geometric patterns.