Eliza Clemmons, 1792
Name/Title
Eliza Clemmons, 1792Entry/Object ID
2002.3.2Tags
Alphabet Sampler, Canvas work, Counted-thread embroidery, Embroidery, Pictorial needlework, SamplerDescription
The pictorial sampler with hte alphabet in capital letters followed by the numbers 1-9 above the inscription: "work'd by Eliza Clemmons in the Fourteenth Year" and continuing into a pastoral scene. ON dark linen ground: orignal wood frame; glassContext
Outstanding pictorial samplers and needlework were worked in the coastal town of Marblehead, Massachusetts, between the 1780's and 1812. Betty Ring, in Girlhood Embroidery, Volume I discusses these pieces in a section entitled,, Marblehead: Its Magnificent Samplers and Eminent Schoolmistress (pages 130-143) and states, "The incomparable samplers of Marblehead have no foreign counterparts and represent American Girlhood embroidery at its best [and these samplers] compose one of the most spectacular recognizable groups of New England needlework." Distinguishing characteristics include very specific patterns, which were drawn onto the sampler makers' linen: the shepaherd and seated shepherdess with her striped dress, the three sheep in overlapping formation and the reclining goats. Eliza was the daughter of Samuel and Alice (Hooper) Clemmons of Marblehead, born in 1779. She married Captain Ambrose Martin of Marblehead in 1795 and died there in 1857, buried in the Elm Streeet cemetery.Collection
ERS Sampler CollectionCategory
Sampler