Name/Title
SamplerEntry/Object ID
2024.1.1Description
Sampler, silk threads on green linen and wool ground ("linsey-woolsey"); cross-stitched, primarily in cream-colored silk. A tablet with a flat top and sloping sides is connected to columns flanking each side. The columns have inverted triangles as capitals, each with a plump bird facing inward on the top. Within the tablet are the words: "Sacred/ to the memory of/ Martha McLellan/ Coffin daughter of Ed/ mund & Mary S Cof/ fin of Biddeford born/ June 29 1805 died Feb/uary 10 1808". There is a fern to each side of "Sacred" and a wave-like border after the final date, all within the tablet. Below the tablet: "Of such is the kingdom of/ Heaven." Three rows of cross-stitch separate the above from the rest of the text: "Where Seraphs min'ster round/ Jehovah's throne/ Her unembodied spotless s[oul]/ is flown" with another fern at the end of the sentence. This last text is quoted from two lines of a poem "On the Death of Miss Juliana Knox" published in Miscellaneous Poems by Susanna Rowson, Boston 1804. Below the poem is a basket with sloping sides having a salmon-colored center surrounded by rows of golden brown and cream-colored silk threads. The basket is flanked by two inward pointing ferns on each side above a sawtooth border with salmon-colored points. The other three sides of the border consist of linked medallions with three salmon-colored stitches in each center. Each side border has stitched buds or flowers coming out of the tops of the medallions; the border at the top has four slightly shorter versions of the buds or flowers between each medallion. Single ferns connect the top and side borders. The sampler is framed in a plain frame with worn gilding exposing the red ground underneath.Context
Although the maker of the sampler is as yet unknown, Edmund and Mary Smith Coffin were residents of Saco and Biddeford. Edmund may have been the eldest child of James Coffin and Martha Coffin, born in Saco, January 13, 1770 and baptized by Rev. John Fairfield, July 15, 1770. More genealogical research needs to be done. The sampler itself has stylistic connections to coastal northern New England through the use of the green linsey-woolsey ground, the columns supporting a flat-topped arch with sloping sides (Hannah Hill, probably Wells, ME, 1827). Olive Gooch's later sampler also has two columns supporting a flat-topped arch (Wells, 1832) as does Jerusha Hill's (Wells, 1834). Borders with hexagonal stitched medallions appear on several samplers: Sarah Moody (1786-1865), Saco, 1812 as well as Betsy Nason Googins, Saco, 1808. Decorative crossed flowers appear in Nancy Favour's sampler (probably Limerick, ME, ca. 1815) as well as the use of small fern-type flowers. Betsy Lane's sampler (Stratham, NH, 1803) was worked on a green ground with similar birds with legs bent backwards. Images of these samplers are in the object file.Made/Created
Date made
circa 1818 - circa 1834Dimensions
Dimension Description
OverallHeight
15-3/8 inWidth
13-3/8 inDepth
1 inDimension Description
SightHeight
13-3/8 inWidth
11-1/4 inDimension Notes
The sampler has not been unframed but it's size appears close to the sight dimensions.Material
Linen and wool, Silk, Wood, Glass, Gilding